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XTbe IDictoda Ibtstotie of the
Counties of JSnglanb
EDITED BY H. ARTHUR DOUBLEDAY
A HISTORY OF
CUMBERLAND
VOLUME I
^Jlifi}\.
A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY
OF CUMBERLAND IN
FOUR VOLUMES EDITED
BY JAMES WILSON, M.A.
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
/t^
OF THE COUNTIES
OF ENGLAND
CUMBERLAND
WESTMINSTER
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE
AND COMPANY LIMITED
Hi
This History is issued to Subscribers only
By Archibald Constable & Company Limited
and printed by Butler & Tanner of
Frame and London
INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY OF
HER LATE MAJESTY
QUEEN VICTORIA
WHO IN HER LIFETIME GRACIOUSLY
GAVE THE TITLE TO
AND ACCEPTED THE
DEDICATION OF
THIS HISTORY
THE ADVISORY COUNCIL
OF THE VICTORIA HISTORY
His Grace The Duke of Devonshire, K.G.
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
His Grace The Duke of Rutland, K.G.
His Grace The Duke of Portland
His Grace The Duke of Argyll, K.T.
The Most Hon. The Marquess of Salisbury,
K.G.
Chancellor of the University of Oxford
The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Rosebery, K.G.,
K.T.
The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Coventry
President of the Royal Agricultural Society
The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Dillon
President of the Society of Antiquaries
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Acton
Regius Professor of Modern History, Cambridge
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Lister
President of the Royal Society
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D., F.S.A.,
etc.
Corpus Professor of jurisprudence, Oxford
Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, K.C.B., D.C.L.,
LL.D., F.S.A., etc.
Director of the British Museum
Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.S.A.
President of the Royal Geographical Society
General Editor — H.
Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte, K.C.B., M.A., F.S.A.,
ETC.
Keeper of the Public Records
Col. Sir J. Farquharson, K.C.B.
Sir Jos. Hooker, G.C.S.L, M.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.,
ETC.
Sir Archibald Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S., etc.
Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., etc.
Lionel Cust, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., etc.
Director of the National Portrait Gallery
Dr. Albert L. G. Gonther, F.R.S.
President of the Linnean Society
Col. Duncan A. Johnston
Director General of the Ordnance Survey
Prof. E. Ray Lankester, M.A., F.R.S., etc.
Director of the Nat. Hist. Museum, South Kensington
Reginald L. Poole, Esq., M.A.
University Lecturer in Diplomatic, Oxford
F. York Powell, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., etc.
Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford
J. Horace Round, Esq., M.A.
Walter Rye, Esq.
W. H. St. John Hope, Esq., M.A.
Assistant Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries
Arthur Doubleday
GENERAL ADVERTISEMENT
The Victoria History of the Counties of England is a National Survey showing
the condition of the country at the present day, and tracing the domestic history of the
English Counties back to the earliest times.
Rich as every County of England is in materials for local history, there has hitherto been
no attempt made to bring all these materials together into a coherent form. There are,
indeed, histories of English Counties ; but many of them — and these the best — are exceed-
ingly rare and costly ; others are very imperfect ; all are out of date.
The Victoria History will trace, county by county, the story of England's growth
from its prehistoric condition, through the barbarous age, the settlement of alien peoples, and
the gradual welding of many races into a nation which is now the greatest on the globe. All
the phases of ecclesiastical history ; the changes in land tenure ; the records of historic and
local families ; the history of the social life and sports of the villages and towns ; the develop-
ment of art, science, manufactures and industries — all these factors, which tell of the progress
of England from primitive beginnings to large and successful empire, will find a place in the
work and their treatment be entrusted to those who have made a special study of them.
Many archaeological, historical and other Societies are assisting in the compilation of this
work, and the editor also has the advantage of the active and cordial co-operation of The
National Trust, which is doing so much for the preservation of places of historic interest and
natural beauty throughout the country.
The names of the distinguished men who have joined the Advisory Council are a
I vii b
guarantee that the work will represent the results of the latest discoveries in every department
of research. It will be observed that among them are representatives of science ; for the
whole trend of modern thought, as influenced by the theory of evolution, favours the intelli-
gent study of the past and of the social, institutional and political developments of national
life. As these histories are the first in which this object has been kept in view, and modern
principles applied, it is hoped that they will form a work of reference no less indispensable
to the student than welcome to the man of culture.
Family History will, both in the Histories and in the supplemental volumes of chart
pedigrees, be dealt with by genealogical experts and in the modern spirit. Every eflFort will be
made to secure accuracy of statement, and to avoid the insertion of those legendary pedigrees
which have in the past brought discredit on the whole subject. It has been pointed out by the
late Bishop of Oxford, a great master of historical research, that ' the expansion and extension
of genealogical study is a very remarkable feature of our own times,' that *it is an increasing
pursuit both in America and England,' and that it can render the historian useful service.
Heraldry will also in this Series occupy a prominent position, and the splendours of the
coat-armour borne in the Middle Ages will be illustrated in colours on a scale that has never
been attempted before.
The general plan of Contents, and the names of the Sectional Editors (who will
co-operate with local workers in every case) are as follows : —
Natural History. Edited by Ahbyn B. R. Trivor-Battye, M.A., F.L.S., etc.
Geology. By Clement Reid, F.R.S., Horace B. Woodward, F.R.S., and others
Palaeontology. Edited by R. L. Lydekker, F.R.S., etc.
(Contributions by G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, M.A., H. N. Dixon, F.L.S.,
G. C. Deuce, M.A., F.L.S., Walter Garstang, M.A., F.L.S., Herbert Goss, F.L.S., F.E.S.,
R. I. PococK, Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, M.A., F.R.S., etc., B. B. Woodward, F.G.S., F.R.M.S^
etc., and other Specialists
Prehistoric Remains. Edited by W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S., F.S.A.
Roman Remains. Edited by F. Haverfield, M.A., F.S.A.
Anglo-Saxon Remains. Edited by C. Hercules Read, F.S.A., and Reginald A. Smith, B.A.
Ethnography. Edited by G. Laurence Gomme, F.S.A.
Dialect. Edited by Joseph Wright, M.A., Ph.D.
Place Names "j
Folklore I Contributed by Various Authorities
Physical Types J
Domesday Book and other kindred Records. Edited by J. Horace Round, M.A.
Architecture. By Various Authorities. The Sections on the Cathedrals and Monastic Remains Edited by
W. H. St. John Hope, M.A.
Ecclesiastical History. Edited by R. L. Poole, IVI.A.
Political History. Edited by W. H. Stevenson, M.A., J. Horace Round, M.A., Proe. T. F. Tout, M.A.,
James Tait, M.A., and C. H. Firth, M.A.
History of Schools. Edited by A. F. Leach, M.A., F.S.A.
Maritime History of Coast Counties. Edited by J. K. Laughton, M.A.
Topographical Accounts of Parishes and Manors. By Various Authorities
History of the Feudal Baronage. Edited by J. Horace Round, M.A., and Oswald Barron, F.S.A.
Family History and Heraldry. Edited by Oswald Barron, F.S.A.
Agriculture. Edited by Sir Ernest Clarke, M.A., Sec. to the Royal Agricultural Society
Forestry. Edited by John Nisbet, D.Oec.
Industries, Arts and Manufactures "j
Social and Economic History I By Various Authorities
Persons Eminent in Art, Literature, Science J
Ancient and Modern Sport. Edited by the Duke of BEAuyoRT
Hunting "V
Shooting |- By Various Authorities
Fishing, etc. J
Cricket. Edited by Home Gordon
Football. Edited by C. W. Alcock
Bibliographies
Indexes
Names of the Subscribers
vni
With a view to securing the best advice w^ith regard to the searching of records, the
Editor has secured the services of the following committee of experts : —
RECORDS COMMITTEE
Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, K.C.B. Wm. Page, F.S.A.
Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte, K.C.B. J. Horace Round, M.A.
W, J, Hardy, F.S.A. S. R. Scargill-Bird, F.S.A.
F. Madan, M.A. W. H. Stevenson, M.A.
F. Maitland, M.A., F.S.A. G. F. Warner, M.A., F.S.A.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Among the many thousands of subjects illustrated will be castles, cathedrals and churches,
mansions and manor houses, moot halls and market halls, family portraits, etc. Particular
attention will be given to the beautiful and quaint examples of architecture which, through
decay or from other causes, are in danger of disappearing. The best examples of church
brasses, coloured glass, and monumental effigies will be depicted. The Series will also contain
1 60 pictures in photogravure, showing the characteristic scenery of the counties.
CARTOGRAPHY
Each History will contain Archaeological, Domesday, and Geological maps ; maps show-
ing the Orography, and the Parliamentary and Ecclesiastical divisions ; and the map done by
Speed in 16 10. The Series will contain about four hundred maps in all.
FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY
The Histories will contain, in the Topographical Section, manorial pedigrees, and
accounts of the noble and gentle families connected with the local history ; and it is proposed
to trace, wherever possible, their descendants in the Colonies and the United States of
America. The Editor will be glad to receive information which may be of service to him
in this branch of the work. The chart family pedigrees and the arms of the families
mentioned in the Heralds' Visitations will be issued in a supplemental volume for each county.
The Rolls of Arms are being completely collated for this work, and all the feudal coats
will be given in colours. The arms of the local families will also be represented in connection
with the Topographical Section.
In order to secure the greatest possible accuracy in the descriptions of the Architecture,
ecclesiastic, military and domestic, a committee has been formed of the following students of
architectural history, who will supervise this department of the work : —
ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE
J. Bilson, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. W. H. St. John Hope, M.A.
R. Blomfield W. H. Knowles, F.S.A., F.R.LB.A.
Harold Brakspear, A.R.I.B.A. J. T. Micklethwaite, F.S.A.
Prof. Baldwin Brown Roland Paul
Arthur S. Flower, F.S.A., A.R.I.B.A. J, Horace Round, M.A.
George E. Fox, M.A., F.S.A. Percy G. Stone, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.
J. A. GoTCH, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. Thackeray Turner
A special feature in connection with the Architecture will be a series of coloured ground
plans showing the architectural history of castles, cathedrals and other monastic foundations.
Plans of the most important country mansions will also be included.
The issue of this work is limited to subscribers only, whose names will be printed at the end of
each History.
ix
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTY OF
CUMBERLAND
VOLUME ONE
WESTMINSTER
2 WHITEHALL GARDENS
I9OI
Counti2 Committee for Cumberlanb
THE RT. HON. THE LORD MUNCASTER, F.S.A.
Lord Lieutenant, Chairman
Hamlet Riley, Esq., J.P., High Sheriff of Cumberland
The Worshipful The Mayor of Carlisle
The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Carlisle
The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Lonsdale
The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Morpeth
The Lord Bishop of Carlisle
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Leconfield
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Brougham and
Vaux
The Rt. Hon. The Speaker of the
House of Commons
The Rt. Hon. James William Lowther,
J.P., D.L., M.P.
Sir Richard George Musgrave, Bart.,
J.P., D.L.
Sir Henry Ralph Vane, Bart., J.P., D.L.
Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., J.P.
Sir Thomas Brocklebank, Bart.
Sir Joseph Ewart, J.P.
Sir John Dunne, D.L.
The Bishop of Barrow-in-Furness
David Ainsworth, Esq., J.P., D.L.
John Stirling Ainsworth, Esq., J.P.
Robert Andrew Allison, Esq., J.P.,
D.L.
James Arlosh, Esq., J.P.
Edwin Hodge Banks, Esq., J.P., D.L.
Henry Barnes, Esq., J.P., LL.D.
Rev. Canon Bower, M.A.
Thomas Brocklebank, Esq., J.P.
F. W. Chance, Esq., J.P., D.L.
William Irwin Robert Crowder, Esq.,
J.P., D.L.
John Norman Dickinson, Esq., J.P.
Thomas Dixon, Esq., J.P.
C. J. Ferguson, Esq., J.P., F.S.A.
Capt. Francis P. Fletcher- Vane
Francis Grainger, Esq., J.P.
Gilbert Henry Wordsworth Harrison,
Esq.
Thomas Hartley, Esq., J.P., D.L.
Rev. W. G. Courtenay Hodgson, M.A,
Thomas Hesketh Hodgson, Esq., J.P.
Henry Charles Howard, Esq., J.P., D.L.
Philip John Canning Howard, Esq., J.P.
Col. Thomas Angelo Irwin, J.P., D.L.
Robert Jefferson, Esq., J.P.
Frederick Ponsonby Johnson, Esq., J.P.
George Graham Kirklinton, Esq., J. P.,
D.L.
Wilfrid Lawson, Esq., J.P., D.L.
William Lewthwaite, Esq., J.P., D.L.
Miles MacInnes, Esq., J.P., D.L.
Reginald Dykes Marshall, Esq., J. P., D.L.
Thomas Barlow-Massicks, Esq., J.P.
The Master of Christ's College, Cam-
bridge
Rev. F. L. H. Millard, M.A.
John Musgrave, Esq., J.P.
Rev. William Hasell Parker, M.A.
William Parkin-Moore, Esq., J.P., D.L.
The Ven. Archdeacon Prescott
The Provost of Queen's College, Oxford
Rev. Canon Rawnsley, M.A.'
James Robertson-Walker, Esq., J.P.
George Robinson, Esq., J.P.
Thomas Rymer, Esq., J.P.
B. Scott, Esq., J.P.
H. Patricius Senhouse, Esq., J.P.
H. Pocklington Senhouse, Esq., J.P., D.L.
Frederick Robertson Sewell, Esq., J.P.
James W. H. P. Spedding, Esq., J.P., D.L.
William Pery Standish, Esq., J.P.
William Stanley, Esq., D.L.
Edmund W. Stead, Esq.
His Honour Judge Steavenson
C. Lacy Thompson, Esq., J.P., D.L.
R. Heywood-Thompson, Esq., J.P.
William Tennant Trimble, Esq.
William Barrow Turner, Esq., J.P., D.L.
E. T. Tyson, Esq., J.P.
J, Proctor Watson, Esq., J.P.
James Watt, Esq., J.P.
George White, Esq., J.P.
Editor: Rev. James Wilson, M.A.
xui
ERRATA
P- 73 f"' Great Strickland, near Penrith, read Great Salkeld, near Penrith
p. 86 for Warmel read Warnel
p. 86 for Tallentine Hill read Tallentire Hill
p. 90 fir Henry II. read Henry I.
XIV
CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE
PAGE
Dedication v
The Advisory Council of the Victoria History vii
General Advertisement vii
The Cumberland County Committee . . xiii
List of Errata •••........... xiv
Contents ••••••......... xv
List of Illustrations •>............ xvii
Preface ................ xix
Natural History
Introduction to Natural History . By the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, M.A., M.B.O.U. . xxiii
Geology ByJ.G.GooDCHiLD,F.G.S., F.Z.S.,H.M. Geol.Snrvey i
Climate ..... By the late William Hodgson, A.L.S. ... 65
Palaeontology .... By Richard L. Lydekker, B.A., F.R.S., F.G.S. . 71
Botany
Introduction . . . . By the late William Hodgson, A.L.S. ... 73
Summary of Orders ... „ „ „ ... 76
The Botanical Districts . . „ „ „ ... 78
Musci {Mosses) .... By the Rev. C. H. Binstead, M.A. ... 94
Zoology
MoUusca {Snails, etc.) . . . By B. B. Woodvitard, F.G.S., F.R.M.S. . . 99
Insecta {Insects)
Orthoptera {Earuiigs, etc.) . By F. H. Day loi
Neuroptera {Drag/inflies) . . „ „ 102
Hymenoptera {Bees, etc.) , „ „ • loj
Coleoptera {Beetles) . . „ „ 105
Lepidoptera {Butterflies and
Moths) „ 117
Diptera {Flies) ... „ „ 14°
Hemiptera {Bugs, etc.) . . „ „ 14'
XV
CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE
Myriapoda {Centipedes) .
Arachnida {Spiders)
Crustacea {Crabs, etc.) .
Pisces {Fishes) ....
Reptilia {Reptiles) and
Batrachia {Batrachians) .
Aves {Birds) ....
Mammalia {Mammals) .
Early Man
Pre-Norman Remains
Introduction to the Cumberland
Domesday, Early Pipe Rolls, and
Testa de Nevill
The Text of the Cumberland
Domesday ....
The Text of the Early Pipe Rolls .
The Text of the Testa de Nevill .
By R. I. PococK .......
By F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, M.A.
By the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S.
By the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, M.A., M.B.O.U. .
By the late R. S. Ferguson, M.A., LL.M., F.S.A.
By W. G. CoLLiNGVirooD, M.A
By the Rev. James Wilson, M.A.
PAGE
143
144
158
169
177
179
218
225
2S3
295
336
338
419
XVI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Derwentwater. Mezzotint by William Hyde f,.„
Geological Section. Fig. i
Geological Section. Fig. 2 .... .
Geological Section. Fig. 3
Geological Section. Fig. 4 ...... .
Helm Wind. Fig. i
Helm Wind. Fig. 2 ...... .
«39
241
242
24s
246
PAGE
■oniispiece
44
44
45
45
67
Helm Wind. Fig. 3 g
Tumulus at Old Parks full-page plate, facing j,.
Tumulus at Old Parks : East side of Stone No. 3 ; West side of Stone No. 4 ; East side of
Stone No. S ; Incense Cup full-page plate, facing p.
Side Stone, Aspatria Cist
Tumulus at Old Parks : Incense Cup ; Beads .... full-page plate, facing p. 243
Stone Circle on Eskdale Moor
Stone Circle near Keswick ]
Stone Circle at Swinside J
Stone Circle and Menhir near Little Salkeld . . ,^0
Barnscar ....... , -_
„ „ „ z^u
Incised Slab, Aspatria •■••........ 2^4.
Bewcastle Cross
The Christ, on Bewcastle Cross j full-page plate, facing p. z^s
Anglian Shaft, Addingham . . . . . . . . . . . .21:6
Fragment, Workington . . . . . . . . . . . _ .21:6
Anglian Shaft, Waberthwaite . . . . . . . . . . . .2C7
Irton Cross full-page plate, facing p. 258
Cross-head from Fratry, Carlisle . . . . . . . . . . .259
Cross-head from Abbey, Carlisle . . . . . . . . . . .259
Cross-head from Cathedral, Carlisle . . . . . . . , , . .259
Cross-head from Brigham . . . . . . . . . . . .259
White Cross, St. John's, Beckermet ]
White Shaft, St. John's, Beckermet I ' " " " ' faU-page plate facing p. z6i
The Norse Cross, St. Bees ............ 262
The Standing Cross, St. Bees 262
The Kenneth Cross, Dearham. . . ]
The Two Spiral Shafts in the Vestry, Aspatria j ' ' * ^""-^'^^ plate facing p. 262
The Standing Cross, Addingham
The Giant's Thumb, Penrith j " " » ^^3
Back and Edges of the Inscribed Cross, Beckermet . . . . . . . .264
Spiral Fragment, Haile . . 264
The Giant's Grave, Penrith ....... full-page plate facing p. 265
The Second Shaft, St. Bridget's, Beckermet . . . . . . . . .265
Gosforth Cross 266
xvii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Crucifixion, Gosforth Cross
Vidar, Gosforth Cross
South Side, Gosforth Cross
Loki and Sigun, Gosforth Cross
Heimdal, Gosforth Cross
Three Cross-heads at Gosforth ^
The Fishing Stone, Gosforth J
Hogback, Plumbland "|
Hogback, Aspatria . J
The Warrior's Tomb, Gosforth "I
The Saint's Tomb, Gosforth J
Hogback, Cross Canonby ">
Dearham Cross J
Muncaster Cross "j
Rockcliffe Cross V .
Dacre Cross J
Waberthwaite Cross
The Red Shaft, Cross Canonby
The Standing Cross, Aspatria
The Drilled Shaft, St. John's, Beckermet
Cross-head, High Aikton
The Lawrence Slab, Cross Canonby .
Socket Stone, Brigham Church
Cross-head, Brigham Vicarage .
The Adam Slab, Dearham
Dearham Font ....
Griffin and Cetus, Bridekirk Font
The Baptism of Christ, Bridekirk Font
The Dolphin Runes ....
Runes of Bewcastle Cross
The Barnspike Runes ....
The Bridekirk Runes ....
The Dearham Runes ....
The Inscribed Cross, St. Bridget's, Beckermet
Fragment found 1857, Carlisle
The Kirkoswald Fibula
The Brayton Fibula
Charter of Henry II. to Hubert de Vallibus
Charters of Henry II. and Richard I.
PAGE
. 267
. 268
. 268
. 269
. 269
full-page plate facing p. 270
271
271
271
272
273
• 273
full-page plate, facing p. 274
27s
LIST OF MAPS
Geological Map, Northern Section
Geological Map, Southern Section
Orographical Map .
Botanical Map
Pre-Historical Map .
Map of Earthworks
Pre-Norman Remains
27s
27s
276
full-page plate, facing p. 276
), *j jj 277
. 278
full-page plate, facing p. 278
279
280
280
full-page plate, facing p. 281
281
full-page plate, facing p. 282
» » 7. 306
■ »> » >> 320
betzoeen pp. 8, 9
16, 17
„ 40, 41
facing p. 73
between pp. 224, 225
„ 232, 233
» 256, 257
XVIU
PREFACE
FOR a long time workers in scientific and archasological research
have been waiting for a History of Cumberland which would
cover the whole field of local investigation, and aim at a more
complete and accurate account of the north-western county than
it was possible to give when the older histories were compiled. Valuable
additions have been made to our knowledge of the natural history and
archseology of the district by the labours during the past thirty years of
the Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature and
Science and the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archas-
ological Society. But the scientific observations and antiquarian researches
of the various workers remain scattered throughout the numerous publi-
cations of these societies. Before the materials thus collected could be
used, they required to be sifted and arranged by experienced specialists
with a view to supervising the work of the local student and of centring
interest on the characteristic features of the district. For the first
volume of this History the editors have had the co-operation of men
who are well acquainted with the county and have taken a prominent
part in the work of these societies in the several departments with which
their names are identified.
In former histories of Cumberland no systematic effort worthy of
the name has been made to examine the physical features of the county
or to treat it as a floral or faunal area. With the exception of Hutch-
inson, who has recorded the results of some excavations undertaken in
the eighteenth century, the archaeology of the district has been a sealed
book to the older historians of the county. Attempts to reduce to order
the confused evidences of prehistoric Man, or to classify the earthworks
and early lapidary remains with which Cumberland abounds, have been
of a very meagre description. Even now our knowledge must not be
considered complete either in the flora and fauna or in the archeology.
The less popular orders in the fauna are here as in other counties inade-
quately studied and recorded ; and great as has been the activity in
recent years in the field of archasological research, much has been lost
through carelessness in the past, and the spade has not been used with
the frequency and thoroughness that the importance of the subject
requires.
The editors regret that in one particular the chronological sequence
of the contributions to this volume has been broken. The section on
Romano-British Cumberland has had to be held over for the second
xix
PREFACE
volume. It is believed that the value of the section will be enhanced
by the postponement.
No attempt has been made to disturb popular usage in the spelling
of place-names. A reasonable liberty has been allowed to contributors
to adopt the methods with which they were familiar. Local nomen-
clature as it was employed at different periods of history will be discussed
in the Topographical section of this work.
Since the present work was undertaken the promoters have had to
deplore the removal by death of two valued contributors, from one of
whom much was expected and whose loss to the History is almost irre-
parable. Richard Saul Ferguson, chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle,
who held for a quarter of a century the hegemonic place in all matters
of local knowledge, died before his first contribution was set in type.
His unrivalled knowledge of the county, as well as his genial and help-
ful sympathy, have been greatly missed by the colleagues engaged with
him in the production of this work. William Hodgson, a man of
another type, the venerable botanist, who loved nature in all its moods,
passed away after he had given the final touches to his catalogue of the
flora of the county. In their respective spheres both men were dis-
tinguished, both were Cumbrians by birth and descent, and both deserve
an honoured place in the dictionary of Cumbrian biography.
The nature and scope of the Victoria History of Cumberland may
best be gathered from a perusal of the General Advertisement which is
prefixed to this volume. The main section of the work will consist of
the history of the parishes and manors in the county, to which the
greater portion of the succeeding volumes will be devoted. The work
which has already been done in this field of research will be duly con-
sidered in the later volumes.
The editors are anxious to acknowledge their obligations to Mr.
J. Horace Round for valued assistance and criticism, and to Mr. George
Neilson for not a few suggestions as the contribution on the Domesday
Book, Pipe Rolls, and Testa de Nevill was passing through the press. It
should be mentioned that the writer of that article is alone responsible
for the statements there made. For the right to reproduce certain of
the illustrations in this volume they are indebted to the courtesy of
Mr. John Murray of Albemarle Street, London ; to the Cumberland
and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archasological Society ; and to
Mr. C. W. Dymond of Ambleside.
XX
A HISTORY OF
CUMBERLAND
AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF
CUMBERLAND
THE rugged heights which crown the lofty eminences of central
and western Cumberland have been carved into strange and
fantastic forms by the action of weathering. Stern and for-
bidding as they may appear to be on first acquaintance, they
serve to include many beautiful dales within their outlying spurs, while
their own surface is sufficiently fertile to afford subsistence to the hardy
Herd wick sheep which are characteristic of this region. The Cumbrian
group of hills embraces many of the higher summits of England, includ-
ing Scaw Fell Pike, 3,208 feet; Scaw Fell, 3,161 feet; Helvellyn, 3,118
feet ; Skiddaw, 3,058 feet ; Great Gable, 2,949 feet ; Saddleback, 2,847
feet ; Grassmoor, 2,79 1 feet ; as well as many other eminences of
approximate altitude. The scarcity of animal life, or at least of the
higher forms of life, upon the mountains of this area has often awakened
surprise among those who spy out the beauties of the ' Wordsworth
country '; the only wild mammal that deserves notice here is the pine
marten, better known to the shepherds of the dales as the ' clean ' or
' sweet mart.' The raven and the common buzzard are often to be
observed crossing from one hill to another, or circling around some dizzy
cliff on the face of which their young are being reared. The glory of
the local avifauna departed when the Lakeland race of sea eagle became
extinct about the end of the eighteenth century ; but a few pairs of the
tame and unobtrusive dotterel continue to rear their young upon the
slopes of certain favourite mountains.
The Cumbrian mountains include in their fauna many interesting
insects, notably the mountain ringlet butterfly, the only alpine butterfly of
which the British Islands can boast. The mountain carpet, the red carpet
and the striped twin-spot carpet are certain finds, reposing on the stone
dykes of the mountains or resting on the faces of the rocks. The most
characteristic Coleoptera of this county are found among the mountains,
including such well known species as Carabus glabratusfialathus micropterus,
Pterostichus cethiops, and many others. The lakes, which fill the hollows
of the valleys that run among the hills, are celebrated for their abundance
of fish. The vendace is only found in Derwentwater and in Bassen-
thwaite Lakes. The gwyniad or skelly swims in large shoals in UUeswater
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
lake, whence single individuals occasionally find their way into the Eden.
Buttermere Lake is famous for the charr which are taken in its waters, as
also in UUeswater and Crummock Water.
The mountains of eastern Cumberland form part of the Pennine
range. In beauty of outHne they are inferior to the more celebrated
Cumbrian group, but they are perhaps superior in the variety of their
bird-life. The dunlin has never nested to our knowledge among the
lake hills proper, but it is one of the most characteristic birds of Cross-
fell and neighbouring summits. The snow-bunting is seldom present in
any numbers among the Keswick mountains even in winter, but like the
twite it assembles in large flocks upon the fell lands of our eastern
border.
The Eden valley is a fine, well-watered region, containing the
remains of Inglewood Forest, which was formerly the home of many wild
red deer. This tract is enriched with very extensive woodlands, which
are often visited by crossbills, as well as by some rarer birds. Among
typical woodland moths may here be mentioned the great emerald,
occurring where birch wood is plentiful, together with the barred red
and the tawny-barred angle, both characteristic of fir plantations.
No account of this county would be complete which failed to lay
stress upon the mosses or bogs which diversify its surface. Some of these
are found in the valleys of the Eden and other rivers, but the most
remarkable are those which are found in the north and west of the
county, including Solway Flow, a tract of historic interest, Bowness
Moss, Salta Moss, Weddholm Flow, and others of greater or less extent.
These mosses are covered with heather, varied with stretches of white
cotton grass or tussocks of coarse grass, or again by beds of reeds and
bulrushes.
These mosses afford a home to many foxes and to a few individuals
of the polecat or ' foul mart,' which was at one time very abundant in
the ' soughs ' of the mosses, and in the rough pasture which frequently
abuts upon these wastes of moorland. The hen-harrier used to nest
upon these vast stretches of morass ; it still visits its ancient haunts in
the winter season. The merlin is very faithful in returning every spring
to rear its progeny upon the mosses of its choice, which afford a retreat
likewise to the short-eared owl. I have found the white eggs of this
owl on our mosses and seen the owlets crouching under the shelter of a
tuft of heather, blinking their eyes uneasily in the strong sunshine. The
golden plover resorts to several of our mosses for breeding purposes, as do
the dunlin and the curlew. Of wildfowl the sheldrake has in recent
years nested upon our flows in considerable plenty, outnumbering the
mallard and the teal, the latter of which is on the deci^ease. The black-
headed gull and the black-backed gull form large breeding colonies on
the flows and mosses ; several pairs of great black-backed gulls reproduce
their kind in a few favoured spots. A butterfly always associated with
our mosses is the marsh ringlet ; the forms present represent an interest-
ing mixture of the three recognized British races of this insect.
xxiv
NATURAL HISTORY
Among the larger and better known moths of the mosses, the oak
eggar, the fox, the emperor, the clouded buff, and the light tussock may
be cited as eminently typical of the ground upon which they are found ;
while the gray rustic among the Noctuas, and the smoky wave, the gray
scalloped bar, and the Manchester treble bar among the Geometrse may
also be referred to.
When we leave the mosses of the northern and western borders of
the county, we enter at once upon the so-called ' marshes.' These are
really extensive areas of reclaimed grazing lands, drained by an intricate
system of creeks. They extend from Skinburness to Abbey, and on the
other side of the river Waver nearly to Kirkbride, and again follow the
banks of the Wampool to the sea. Similar marshes stretch from the
neighbourhood of Port Carlisle to Burgh Marsh Point and the banks of
the Eden ; the latter river unites its waters with those of the Esk below
the extremity of RocklifFe marsh, which is washed by the stream of
both of these fine salmon rivers. The whole of the Solway marshes are
covered with grass, and large portions of their surface glow in summer
with the crimson carpeting of the thrift ; many redshanks wheel across
the wide expanse of salting with vociferous cries, while their young
crouch like those of the peewit under the shelter of any convenient tuft
of grass. The shoveler also rears its young upon these marshes. Endless
skylarks rise from under the feet of the pedestrian who seeks to cross the
marsh, while the common sandpiper chants its familiar notes along the
margins of the sandy shores, which are enlivened as autumn draws on by
the arrival of hundreds of ringed plover and other little waders. Indeed,
the marshes are most frequented by migrating birds in the month of
September ; redbreasts skulk in the sides of the creeks ; wheatears dart
from turf to turf ; little stints probe the tiny pools or ' dubs ' for minute
worms ; greenshanks, ruffs, bar-tailed godwits, and other birds of the
same family feed on the wide expanse of sand laid bare by the ebbing
tide, or resort for shelter to the marshes, as the gravel scaurs upon which
they congregate are covered with the swiftly advancing waters. In
winter, such hardy birds as curlews and knots replace the waders that are
less tolerant of cold ; wild ducks and geese then arrive in large or small
flocks and feed upon the marsh grass or the various forms of animal life
to be found in the creeks. Many different species of duck resort during
the day to a small group of freshwater ' loughs ' or lakes, which are
situated within a short flight of the great estuaries of the Solway Firth.
Of these sheets of water, the most favoured is Monkhill Lough, which is
resorted to by whooper swans, Bewick's swans, long-tailed ducks and
certain other species. But of all the birds which frequent our marshes
no species more deserves mention than the bernacle goose, which has
resorted to our marshes from time immemorial to feed upon the finer
grasses throughout the colder months of the year.
Westward of Silloth, the flat shores of the Solway Firth are flanked
by a fine belt of sand dunes, among which innumerable rabbits sport and
gambol ; Pallas's sand grouse showed a marked partiality for these sand
XXV
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
dunes in the year 1888. The fine bay which extends from Maryport to
Dub Mill is visited by hundreds and even thousands of peewits and other
waders in early winter ; it is also much favoured by wild duck in rough
weather, when the birds leave the open channels of the firth for more
sheltered quarters. The country between Maryport and Whitehaven is
singularly devoid of zoological interest ; but the fine red sandstone cliffs
which rise immediately above the town of Whitehaven have ere now
afforded nesting ledges to the peregrine.^ I have myself stood upon the
brink of the high precipices which break the force of the Irish Sea while
a pair of breeding peregrines flew around my head in noisy distress.
Herring gulls rear their young on the Sandwith rocks, as do the common
guillemots, of which unnumbered multitudes are cast up upon our
shingled beach during the prevalence of winter gales. Pursuing the
coast line southward from St. Bees, we soon arrive at Drigg Common, a
famous bird nursery ; here many Sandwich terns lay their beautiful eggs
in the hollows of the sand dunes, sharing with the oystercatcher and
other birds in the protection bestowed upon them by the laudable
thoughtfulness of Lord Muncaster, Flocks of wigeon and other species
of ducks frequent the estuaries of the Irt, Mite and Esk, and in a lesser
degree of the Duddon ; but the avifauna of this part of the coast has not
hitherto proved to be so rich as that of the Solway Firth.
In concluding this sketch of some few of the most remarkable
features which present themselves to the naturalist who seeks to investi-
gate the animal life of this county, it is only fair to observe that its fauna
has been studied with considerable care for more than a hundred years.
Dr. Heysham, the famous physician, settled at Carlisle in 1778, and
devoted his leisure to the pursuit of local natural history. He spent a
vast amount of time in working at the life history of the salmon, dissecting
no fewer than 198 ' brandlins ' in the year 1796. His list of ' Cumber-
land Animals ' appears from internal evidence to have been completed in
1797. It was published in Hutchinson's /Zw^ory o/" Ca»2/^^r/«W. Though
the doctor was a bon vivant, he lived to a good old age, dying in his own
house in Carlisle in 1834, in his 8ist year. He was of a more stirring
and sociable disposition than his son, Thomas Coulthard Heysham, whose
name is generally confused with that of his parent ; but though by nature
shy and retiring, there can be no doubt that T. C. Heysham was a man
of fine intelligence and a most versatile and accomplished naturalist.
Though he was more of a collector than a writer, he published an
excellent account of the nesting habits of the dotterel, besides contribut-
ing a few useful notes to the works upon British birds and British fishes
which bear the honoured name of WilUam Yarrell. There cannot be
any question that the Heyshams ranked among the best zoologists of the
times in which they lived. Their names should always be held in
kindly remembrance by Cumbrian naturalists.
1 Henry VIII. used to receive from the abbots of ' Saynt Maries besides York ' an annual gift of a
' caste ' of falcons from this eyrie. After the disestablishment of ' the lait monesterie ' the ' same haukis '
were sent 'to be presented to the Quene hir grace' {Hamilton Papers, ii. 442).
xxvi
GEOLOGY
THE County of Cumberland affords an excellent illustration of
the close connection that exists between the geological structure
of a district and its local history. That such is the case will be
sufficiently evident from a consideration of the fact that the
great surface features are in all cases due to causes of a geological nature.
It need not be insisted upon here that it is the relative position of the
hills, the passes, and the plains, quite as much as the configuration of the
coast line, which have repeatedly proved to be factors of prime impor-
tance in determining both the locations of the earlier settlers and the
movements of those others who in later times have tried to gain a footing
in the land. Equally important factors in the evolution of historical
events are such matters as the distribution of mineral wealth, the con-
ditions relating to water supply, and the suitability or otherwise of
particular areas for agricultural purposes. With all of these geology is
very intimately concerned. Indeed, one may justly remark that the true
sequence of many historical events of far-reaching importance can only
be rightly understood by tracing those events back to a starting-point
which may date many thousands of years prior to the dawn of history,
and which are due entirely to those operations of nature with which it is
the special province of the geologist to deal. This statement may be
regarded as equivalent to saying that the respective provinces of the
archasologist and the geologist of the present day extensively overlap.
This of course is most especially the case in that part of the domain of
science which includes the study of prehistoric man, in which branch
of enquiry it is difficult, or impossible, to indicate precisely where the
science of archasology ends and that of geology begins. Under these
circumstances it is obvious that the best way of regarding their relative
positions is to consider them as continuous with each other, and to treat
the geology of a district simply as a record of all the events which have
taken place in the interval between the dawn of civilization and the
remotest periods of which there are traces in the past.
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
PROTEROZOIC PERIOD
Silurian Rocks.
B. Kirkby Moor Flags.
Bannisdale Slates.
Coniston Grits and Flags.
A. Pale Slates.
Graptolitic Mudstones.
Unconformity.
Ordovician Rocks.
B. Bala Volcanic and other Rocks.
A. Borrowdale Volcanic Series and Milburn Rocks.
Upper part of the Skiddaw Slates.
Cambrian Rocks.
Lower part of the Skiddaw Slates,
I. The Skiddaw Slates. — {a) The geological records of Cumber-
land date back to an early period in the history of the earth, long prior to
the existence of any mountain, valley, or coast feature now to be seen, and
also long before any but the very simplest forms of animal or plant life
now existing on the earth had come into being. The evidence from
which we can draw any safe conclusions regarding the events which
occurred in the earlier chapters of the historical geology of Cumberland
is, as might be expected, very fragmentary and imperfect, and not a few
of the known facts are capable of more interpretations than one. Still
after a careful and prolonged search, carried on by many patient in-
vestigators in this field of study, a sufficient number of facts has been
brought to light to warrant us in drawing a few conclusions with a
tolerable amount of certainty. We do know that the earliest records
of Cumberland are by no means the oldest even in Britain ; but, omitting
any further reference to these areas outside the county, we may begin by
considering the facts presented by the vast pile of slates, mudstones, and
grits, which form the upland area lying to the east and the south-west of
Bassenthwaite, and which includes Grassmoor, Saddleback, and Skiddaw
(or Skidda) . To these, the most ancient rocks of Cumberland, the name
Skiddaw Slates is usually applied. Internal evidence supplied by these
rocks makes it quite clear that they are the broken, much-disturbed, and
greatly-altered, representatives of what was at one time a vast pile of
marine sediments, representing the mud, sand and shingle brought down
to a delta by a large river draining a great tract of land some distance
away. Every particle of these old rocks represents what was formerly
part of some older solid rock constituting that land, and its present
position is due entirely to the prolonged action of rain and rivers upon
that old land surface. The evidence further assures us that the area now
occupied by Cumberland was in those remote times being gradually
lowered by earth movements, which proceeded at a very slow rate, and
which, on the whole, kept pace with the deposition of the sediment.
Occasionally a somewhat less slow subsidence than usual brought about
a greater depth of water ; while at other times the sediments forming
the old delta pushed seaward a little faster than the subsidence carried
GEOLOGY
them downward. Probably if we could have measured the rate at
which these movements were progressing we should have found them
almost imperceptible, even when the observation extended over centuries.
At whatever rate the subsidence may have proceeded it continued through
a sufficiently long period to allow of the accumulation of layer upon
layer until a pile several thousands of feet in thickness was accumulated.
At a late period in the history of these rocks there seems to be
evidence that some upheaval took place, and there was laid down one or
more bands of pebbles, of which bands, now hardened into conglomerate,
we have now traces near Keswick, and also at Cockermouth and elsewhere.
After that followed a period of somewhat deeper water conditions, during
which finer mud subsided to the sea bottom here. It was chiefly during
this period that the animals lived of which fuller mention will be made
presently.
{b) The peculiar conditions under which these old sediments were
deposited extended in one direction beyond where the Isle of Man is now,
and, in the other, into north Cumberland. It is possible, however, that
they did not extend much farther north. It may well prove some day
that the earlier deposits of this age are contemporaneous with the upper
part of the Durness Limestone of north-western Scotland. In this case
there must have been deeper water conditions in that direction, and
therefore, possibly, the old land from whose waste the Skiddaw Slates
were derived may have lain to the south-east. Be that as it may, we can
feel much more certain regarding the nature of the sea bottom, and the
physical geography in general of the area adjoining the Solway during
the latter part of the period when the Skiddaw Slate was being formed.
We have records in the southern uplands of Scotland (the old Valentia
of the Romans) of an important series of volcanic outbursts taking place
on the ocean floor and apparently in deep water. There is no clear
evidence that these volcanic conditions extended into the area where
Keswick is now, although some volcanic rocks in the Caldbeck Fells
may eventually prove to belong to this period. The conditions that
obtained in what is now north Cumberland at this period may have
borne a close resemblance to those now found on the eastern margin of
the Indian Ocean, where volcanic rocks, rocks of oceanic types, and
terrigenous deposits from the land are being laid down in close con-
tiguity to each other, and sometimes change their relative places.
Beneath what are now the Border Counties there lies buried at a
great depth another phase of sedimentation, of which it is probable
representatives may occur in Cumberland. We have good reason to
believe that while the middle part of the Skiddaw Slates was being
formed, the ocean floor in the northern part of the area sank to a vast
depth, so that the sea bottom there at the period under consideration lay
for a vast length of time at a depth of between two and three miles below
sea level. The nature of the deposit that accumulated there is in all
essential respects comparable with the Radiolarian Ooze which is being
slowly formed in the greater ocean depths at the present day, especially
3
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
in the central Pacific, as well as in those parts of the Indian Ocean where
the ocean floor lies at a greater depth than 2,500 fathoms. To under-
stand the full significance of the fact a brief digression is needed. In
nearly all the warmer parts of the ocean surface-waters there exist vast
numbers of minute animals of lowly organization (the Protozoa), some
of which secrete from the sea water carbonate of lime, which forms the
harder and outer parts of the creature (the Foraminifera) ; while another
allied set of minute animals secrete from the fine clay present in all sea
water corresponding shells of siliceous composition. These latter animals
referred to are the Radiolaria. When these Protozoa die, their harder
parts slowly descend through the sea water, and in course of time may
sink to a great depth below the surface. But as this quiet drizzle of
shelly matter settles towards the bottom, the sea water begins to exercise
a solvent effect upon the calcareous shells, the effect increasing with the
depth below the surface ; while the associated siliceous shells are not
so acted upon by the water. As a consequence, few, if any, of the cal-
careous shells survive a descent of more than 2,500 fathoms, while the
siliceous shells that set out on the same journey with them reach the
bottom undissolved. In other words, below 2,500 fathoms few or no
calcareous organisms are to be found, those of siliceous composition alone
remaining. The Radiolarian Ooze of the present day is found only at
depths exceeding 2,500 fathoms. Geologists usually reason on the basis
that principles founded upon facts observed now hold good equally well
in similar cases in the past. That is to say, a Radiolarian Ooze, what-
ever its age, denotes a depth at the place where it was found of more
than 2,500 fathoms. Now, a Radiolarian Ooze of well marked char-
acter and of considerable thickness, lies close above, and is partly inter-
stratified with, the deep-sea volcanic rocks just mentioned as contempo-
raneous with some of the Skiddaw Slate rocks near Keswick. It is quite
likely that a cherty deposit found in connection with the Skiddaw Spates
near Ousby may represent this deep sea deposit here. At any rate, we can
feel sure of this point, that at the period when some of the slates near
Skiddaw were being deposited as layers of fine clay at the bottom of a
moderately deep sea, there existed a great oceanic depression only a few
miles to the north. This again suggests that the old land at this period
lay somewhere to the south of Cumberland.
The Radiolarian deposit referred to may some day be detected in
the Lake district itself. Whether that prove to be the case or not, we
have in this old oceanic ooze one more of the many proofs that are
coming to light in various parts of the world, and in connection with
rocks of all ages, that oceanic areas and continents have really changed
places, and that, too, more than once at the same spot.
(c) During the latter part of the time when the oceanic phase of
geographical conditions prevailed near the site of the English border, the
parts of Cumberland a few miles farther south began to be the theatre of
a series of changes of a different kind. A slow movement of upheaval
of a very local character set in, and there is reason to believe that the
4
GEOLOGY
effect of this movement in the course of time was to ridge up the sea
bottom by slow degrees until, from shallow water, it passed into land.
The immediate effect was to bring about the waste and destruction of
the newly-exposed sediments by the combined action of the waves and
the subaerial waste brought about by rain and the agents working with
it. There are several facts connected with the behaviour of the rocks in
the district on each side of the present Bassenthwaite Water which seem
to indicate that the local upheaval referred to was one of a series, which
commenced at an early stage in the history of the rocks there, and was
continued intermittently, while a considerable subsidence was in progress
in the area to the south. But the full discussion of this matter is of too
technical a nature to be treated in an article like the present one. These
local upheavals were intimately connected with the evolution of an im-
portant group of volcanoes which finally grew up so as to extend over
a large part of Cumberland, and to which attention will be more fully
directed further on.
{d) Leaving for the present the consideration of the events which
followed the advent of these volcanic conditions we may notice here the
more prominent features connected with the life of the period. Records
of the vegetable life of the period are too scanty to enable us to form any
very clear notion of what it was like ; but such fragments as are known
suggest that the more lowly forms of vegetation, little higher in grade
than the seaweeds, were predominant. Of animal life more is known.
It seems from the available evidence that nothing approaching vertebrate
forms of life had yet come into existence ; and that, in the sea, at any rate,
the most highly organized beings were creatures more or less closely
allied to the Nautilus. On the fine mud which formed the sea bottom
there certainly lived a considerable variety of the curious jointed-legged
creatures which are known as Trilobites, from the characteristic three-
fold arrangement of their larger parts. These in some respects find their
nearest allies at the present day in the King Crab {Limulus), and perhaps
also in the Spiders and Scorpiofis. Remains of Trilobites are occasion-
ally found on various platforms in the Skiddaw Slates. The writer of this
chapter figured in the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, ix. No. 7,
all that were known at that time. With these Arthropods lived some
few lowly forms of Crustacea ; and there were also some representatives
of the important group of Brachiopoda, which are animals distantly allied
on the one hand to the Worms, and on the other to the MoUusca. But
the best known fossils from the Skiddaw Slates are those remarkable
zoophytes which are known collectively as Graptolites. These animals
were, in many respects, not very different from the Sea Firs of the pre-
sent day ; and, like those so-called ' seaweeds,' lived at the sea bottom in
little colonies, sometimes attached to some stony object, but more often
anchored to the mud by means of a special arrangement with which they
are provided for that purpose. Both geologically and zoologically these
obscure organisms are objects of considerable importance. Those from
the Skiddaw Slates have lately been described in an important paper
5
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of Landon^ vol.
X., by Miss Ellis.
II. We may now turn to the fuller consideration of the volcanic
episode to which brief reference has just been made, and in connection
with which so much that is of geological interest in the present Lake
district is intimately concerned. The history of the volcanoes cannot be
completely made out ; but we already know quite enough to give us a
much clearer view, as we look back into the past, than is possible in the
case of the Skiddaw Slates. One thing is quite clear : the volcanoes
began with a series of extremely violent eruptions, in the course of which
the explosions tore away vast quantities of the older sediments through
which the volcanic vents arose, and ejected those fragments to a con-
siderable distance from their starting-point. It is not a little remarkable
that fragments of lava in many cases form but a small proportion of these
ejected materials from the earlier-formed vents. Fragments of the Skid-
daw Slates abound in these old tuffs, thereby proving, if proof were still
needed, that the volcanic rocks are of later date than the rock referred to.
On theoretical grounds we may suppose that these violent paroxys-
mal explosions were due to the water finding its way down through the
outer zones of the lithosphere (or rocky crust of the earth) to the inner
zones, where, from one or other of several possible causes, there existed
a temperature sufficiently high to produce conditions favourable to the
generation of new compounds. Heated waters, containing but a small
percentage of the alkalies present in combination in sea water, are com-
petent to dissolve almost any rock material known, and are able to do so
at a comparatively low temperature — far below that which lavas have
when first poured out of a volcano. A compound of the nature referred
to possesses violent explosive properties, and, indeed, can only be kept
from exploding by the influence of enormous pressure. If by any ter-
restrial movement the pressure at the critical time happens to be relieved,
liquefaction at once commences, and steam in a highly explosive condition
is generated throughout the area where the pressure has been eased off.
Under these circumstances the fluid rock material begins to eat its way
in the direction of least resistance, and finally reaches the surface, where
the pressure is relieved by a succession of more or less violent detonations,
whose general nature may be likened to that of boiler explosions. One
of the determining causes of both a local rise of underground tempera-
ture and a spasmodic relief of pressure must have been the local bending
of the outer part of the lithosphere to which reference has already been
made. Indeed, it seems unnecessary to invoke any other factors in the
generation of volcanic action than this local conversion of the energy of
motion into heat energy, combined with the downward transference by
osmosis of alkaline waters from the floor of the ocean, and the subsequent
release of the imprisoned gases by the local and spasmodic relief of pres-
sure which accompanies the folding mentioned above.
The Cumberland volcanoes were probably small to begin with, and
probably there were several in an irregular line ranging southward
6
GEOLOGY
through the site of Keswick. But we have no further evidence upon
this point than the analogy afforded by the behaviour of volcanoes at the
present day, and the fact that volcanoes of the same period occur also in
Wales.
After the first violent paroxysm and the discharge of fragments of
sedimentary rock into the air, the relief of pressure below the surface
appears to have favoured the liquefaction of the rock. Under these
conditions, that heated mixture of the component gases of water and
liquefied rock of which lavas consist, began to make its way to the sur-
face. But the explosive forces pent up below were so vastly more
powerful than was needed for merely propelling the fluid mass to the
surface, that they sufficed, each time the pressure was relieved, to drive
the fluid rock with terrific violence to a great height — probably miles —
into the air, whence, as the force expended itself and gravitation came
more into play, the coarser fragments of lava, now hardened by their
passage through the cool air, fell back in great piles upon the surface,
close to the orifice whence they were ejected, while the finer material
was distributed far and wide by the action of the wind.
The evidence shows that a succession of such explosive outbursts
took place, with pauses of varying length between each, during which
marine sediments were deposited here and there to a small thickness
between such of the volcanic mounds as reached to no great height
above the sea.
Eventually the eruptions occasionally assumed a less violent char-
acter, and on these occasions a quiet outpouring of lava took place,
followed in turn by more explosive outbursts and the dispersal of frag-
mentary material over an increasingly large area. There can be but
little doubt that the central area of volcanic action soon rose to a suffi-
cient height to stand well above the waves, and that it probably con-
tinued to maintain that elevation while the additions to the surface of
the volcano kept pace with the depression caused by the general subsi-
dence which set in at an early stage.
(a) Several minor events occurred in connection with the central por-
tion of the volcano, some of which have to be noticed here. Amongst
the effects of these may be mentioned the curious ' faulting ' so well seen
in some of the Cumberland ' green slates,' and also the crumpling and
contortion that accompanies these ' faults.' Both appear to be due to
the fact that a period during which fine volcanic dust was ejected was
followed by another when floods of molten rock poured over the sides of
the crater and down the slopes of the cone, the flood of lava thus rolling
over the lately-deposited tuff. The effect upon these unconsolidated
beds of rock fragments was naturally to produce the same result as if
a gigantic road-roller had passed over them. The beds were folded,
crumpled and fractured, and, being compressed obliquely downwards,
the faults generally took the form of reversed fa-ults. Thrusts due to the
flow of the lavas affected the tuffs beyond the lava flows themselves, and
it therefore frequently happened that a bed of tuff which had been frac-
7
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
tured and crumpled at one stage was soon after that covered by other
layers of fine dust which had, of course, not shared in the disturbance.
The ' green slates ' of Tilberthwaite and of many other localities in
the Lake district show these interesting records of contemporaneous
disturbance very beautifully, and museum specimens, or even specimens
that will go into a waistcoat pocket, may easily be obtained which will
show these features well.
Another set of features of general interest connected with the tuffs
has been produced by the action of rain, or of aqueous vapour from the
volcano, chilled by its upward passage into the air. Such vapour
condenses readily upon the cooler and finer fragments of volcanic dust
in the upper part of the column shot out from the volcano during erup-
tion. Once such a nucleus is formed it tends to enlarge by the addition
of more water and more dust as the pellet descends. Finally it reaches
the surface as a small ball of mud, and may plump down into the fine
dust and there become entombed. There are many examples of this
kind, especially near Ambleside.
Also it often happens that the torrential rains precipitated from the
column during an eruption wash vast quantities of the finer material
down the slopes of the cone, and give rise to such floods of volcanic
mud as those {lava (Taqua) which overwhelmed Herculaneum during
the Plinian eruption of Vesuvius. Many beds of rock of origin similar
to this occur in connection with the Cumberland volcanoes.
It is from the combined results of these explosive eruptions, violent
or gentle, from the outpourings of the floods of lava, from the action of
surface causes, and from the forcible injection of materials underground
derived from the volcanic focus, that the great pile of rocks was formed,
out of whose much-altered remains the finest scenery of the Lake dis-
trict has since been carved. It may be remarked here that these rocks
underwent many changes and modifications long before they were finally
exposed. These will have to be considered in chronological order, and
will be therefore referred to again.
The volcanic eruptions were by no means continuous, but were
often separated by long periods of repose, during which surface agencies
modified the slopes of the volcanoes. Furthermore, it is very unlikely
that the volcanoes attained their maturity without the episodes of des-
truction which almost every other volcano, ancient or modern, seems at
some time or other in its history to have undergone.
The length of time required for the growth of this stage of the
Cumberland volcano must have been very great indeed. Notwithstand-
ing the apparent evidence to the contrary, the growth of a volcano is by
no means rapid. Taking one volcano with another, it would seem a
fair estimate of their rate of growth if it is set at one foot in 300
years. The Cumberland volcano certainly rivalled Etna in dimensions ;
and Mr. Ward's estimate of 12,000 feet as the maximum thickness of
these rocks is, if anything, below, rather than above, the actual thick-
ness to be found.
HISTORY OF CTTMBEKLAND
GEOLOGICAL Mi
Til*'. £djiibiiivh GoogrJfjiliicfll Tcji
SCALC 4 MILES TO AN INCH
12
THE VICTORIA HISTO
NORTHERN SECTION.
JHE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND
County Boundary shown thus
GEOLOGY
It may be well to state here that the material shot out from a vol-
cano during an explosive eruption is called tuff (or ' ash ') in the cases
where the material falls outside of the crater, quite without regard to
whether that material is coarse or fine. The material which fills up an
old vent or '■neck' is called agglomerate, whether it is coarse or fine. The
term lava is restricted to the floods of rock which have poured out of
the vents over the surface of the cone ; while the same kind of material
injected below the surface gives rise to a sill if it consolidates in the
form of a more or less horizontal sheet, and to a dyke if it consolidates
in a wall-like mass.
The Cumberland volcanic series consists of rocks of Upper Are-
nig and Llandeilo age. Lithologically, the greater part of the rocks
consist of andesites and andesite tuffs, which approach basalts in the
earlier part. Furthermore, there is a newer and higher volcanic
group of different lithological character associated with the rocks just
noticed, and to which fuller reference will need to be made further
on.
(^) In the meantime we have to notice a group of rocks which are
contemporaneous with those of volcanic origin, and which consist mainly
of sediments. To enable the reader to understand their relation to the
rocks just noticed, he is asked to bear in mind that a volcano is neces-
sarily limited in horizontal extent, and that the lava streams which reach
its flanks, as well of course as the tuffs beyond, will tend to be laid
down alternately with marine sediments if the volcano is anywhere near
the sea, and that the relative proportion of volcanic to sedimentary
matter diminishes as we advance outward from the central area until it
finally comes to nothing. It must be obvious on reflection that this
must have been the case as much in connection with the volcanoes of
the past as it is with those of the present.
We are therefore quite prepared to find that while the old Cum-
berland volcano was gradually rearing its cone above the level of the sea
the deposition of sediment went on contemporaneously on the sea bottom
outside its flanks. Nearer to the sphere of volcanic action the old sedi-
ments occasionally received showers of fine tuff which had been wafted
far out to sea during explosions of a more violent character than usual.
Such volcanic material thus became mixed in every proportion with
the sedimentary matter — the proportion of the former to the latter in-
creasing relatively to the nearness of the cone. To put these statements
into a terser form, we may say that on the flanks of the volcano there
was a passage from purely volcanic to purely sedimentary material,
chiefly through interstratification.
Hence we may safely conclude that wherever such passage beds
occur, they mark the seaward flank of the volcano of that particular
period.
In north-eastern Cumberland the map shows that there is a narrow
strip along the foot of the Cross Fell range along which some of the
oldest rocks of the district have been abruptly elevated to the surface.
9
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
These afford a most important insight into the history of Cumberland
during the remote period under consideration. The nature of some of
these rocks clearly points to the presence of geographical conditions in
which sediments of marine origin were deposited alternately with layers
of the fine dust which had been transported seawards by the winds
during some of the more violent eruptions of the old volcanoes, but at
too great a distance to be reached by the lava streams. That these
alternations of old marine sediments, fine tuffs, and mixtures of both,
are contemporaneous with the volcanic rocks in the heart of the Lake
district, is shown in the most unmistakable manner by the fossils which
they contain. Their general nature indicates quiet deposition on a
steadily subsiding ocean floor at no great distance from a group of vol-
canoes. As it is often convenient to employ some definite name for the
larger subdivisions of a great pile of rocks like these, taken from the
locality where the rocks are now best seen, the present author several
years ago proposed for these sedimentary equivalents of the volcanic
series the name of the Milburn Rocks. They are well seen below Cross
Fell, and they are particularly well exposed in John Robinson's Pastures,
on the north side of the village of Milburn : whence the name. Their
aggregate thickness cannot be made out with certainty, but it can hardly
be less than between 5,000 and 6,000 feet. The principal fossils are
Graptolites, Trilobites and Brachiopoda, all of Lower Llandeilo types.
The fact that we have perfectly clear evidence of marine conditions
and of continued subsidence within twenty miles of the centre of the
volcano would prepare us for the idea that the later stages of volcanic
activity coincided with a subsidence at least of part of the volcanic area
itself. And, further, the facts quite justify us in regarding the volcano
as one which was only enabled to keep its summit above the waves by
the fact that the eruptions piled up the volcanic material at a rate
which, on the whole, kept pace with the rate of lowering of the sea floor
until at least the later stages in the history of the volcano.
{c) Volcanic areas usually coincide with areas of unequal sub-
sidence, and that of Cumberland appears to have been no exception to
the general rule. Some of the geological facts which may be observed
in the areas around Bassenthwaite seem to point to the conclusion
already referred to, that this area did not sink at the same rate as the
area around where Ambleside is now. There may even have been some
upheaval in the northern part while subsidence was going on in the
south. To put this statement into another form, we may say that, while
the southern end of the area sank as fast as the volcanic material was
piled upon it, the northern end either remained stationary or else was
slowly ridged up from the sea bottom, and thus was wasted by the
weather and the sea almost as fast as it rose. The idea is not easy to
grasp, and would not need to be again referred to here if the fact had
not an important bearing upon some events of later date to which
subsequent reference will be made.
(</) There is some doubt as to the exact nature of the events which
10
GEOLOGY
succeeded the period of maximum development of the volcano, for the
structure of the rocks was highly complicated to begin with, and the
complexity has been considerably increased by later events. But a broad
review of the facts, by the light obtained from the structure of similar
rocks of the same age which occur elsewhere, seems to point to there
having ensued a period during which the volcano was apparently extinct,
and the earth movements may have been taking the form of upheaval
over the entire area. During this period of quiescence the whole sur-
face underwent much of that waste which invariably arises from pro-
longed exposure of rocks above the level of the sea. To the present
author the facts appear to suggest that in the area now represented by
northern Cumberland the remnants of the older volcano were exposed
long enough to be wasted away entirely, and, with these remnants, were
also removed much of the older rock which underlay the volcano.
Subsequently, another group of volcanoes, different in character
from the first, and in form and arrangement more like the ' puys ' of
central France, broke out here and there over the whole area, and their
lava streams and tuffs were spread out across the wasted surface of those
older rocks to which reference has just been made. Then subsidence
again set in, and some bands of sediment and one or two bands of lime-
stone were deposited on the sea floor both on and amongst the rocks
of volcanic origin. On the southern flanks of Roman Fell, in West-
morland, there is displayed a fine series of alternating sedimentary and
volcanic rocks, which mark this phase in the history of Cumberland ;
and it is just possible that the same kind of rocks may occur in still
greater development in the Caldbeck Fells and near Melmerby in north
Cumberland. The character of the fossils which occur in the sedi-
mentary rocks associated with these latter volcanic rocks indicates that
their formation commenced in Lower Bala times, and was continued until
late on in the Upper Bala period. The rocks in question are con-
temporaneous with a vast thickness of strata of the same kind which
occur in Wales. In Cumberland at least they appear to lie unconform-
ably upon the older rocks beneath : in other words, an upper volcanic
series there lies discordantly upon a lower.
It may be well to state at this point that the older group of rocks
heretofore noticed, including the upper part of the Skiddaw Slate, the
Milburn Rocks, and the older volcanic rocks of the Lake district (the
Borrowdale Series) are comprehended in the Lower Ordovician group ;
while the latter series, including the associated limestone, shales, and
other sedimentary rocks, are here ranked as Upper Ordovician : that is
to say, in Cumberland the Bala Rocks are unconformable to those of
Llandeilo and Arenig age.
Neither of these volcanic episodes appears to have extended far to
the north, as in the southern uplands of Scotland the rocks formed during
this period are mainly fine-grained muds, slowly formed on the floor of
the ocean at a great depth below the surface, rocks of volcanic origin
being almost unrepresented.
II
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Some scraps of evidence obtainable in the Craven area seem to indi-
cate that the older set of volcanic cones may not have extended far in
that direction either. But that the later (Upper Ordovician) set was not
far away from that area is shown by an interesting group of sediments
which occurs there, and in which are mingled some of the finer products
of the chief explosions of the volcano, which therefore could not have
been far distant at this time.
(e) Life during Ordovician Times. — So far as is known at present
no animal of higher zoological grade than the Invertebrata had come
into existence during Ordovician times. The highest forms of life yet
found belong to the MoUusca, and to that section of the MoUusca (the
Cephalopoda) which includes the Nautilus of the present day. The
Arthropoda were represented mainly by some Phyllocarida, and by an
abundance and great variety of Trilobites, which reached their maximum
development during this period, and whose different forms have a zonal
value of much the same character as the Graptolites. Brachiopoda were
also very abundant. All the other classes of the Invertebrata were
represented. Of the plants we know as yet but little, and we are not
likely to know much more, seeing that most of the strata of which re-
mains exist were formed in the sea or else are of volcanic origin.
{f) The events briefly summarised in the foregoing paragraphs must
have required for their accomplishment from first to last a period of time
of inconceivable length, if we may judge by the importance of the
changes in both the inorganic and the organic worlds which took place
in the meantime. Group after group of invertebrate organisms was
slowly evolved from pre-existent forms, its various species reached their
maximum of development, gradually passed away, and gave place to others.
Oceanic areas and land more than once exchanged places. Mountain
masses were slowly built up, elevated above the sea, and in the course
of long ages wasted away, and their materials were g dually transferred
to that cradle of new lands, the ocean floor, there to be again used up in
the formation of later rocks. Geologists, fully cognisant of all these
changes, and duly taking into account the rate at which such changes
are proceeding now, niay well be pardoned if they regard the time
represented by these Upper and Lower Ordovician Rocks of Cumber-
land as one of enormous length. The author of this article, in his
address to the Royal Physical Society, has estimated it at 45,000,000
of years.'
III. The Seqijence of Events during Silurian Times. — {a) Over a
large part of Britain there is evidence that the close of Ordovician times
was marked by considerable disturbance and slow upheaval of the land.
In some localities, large areas consisting of the previously-formed rocks
were upheaved, and exposed for lengthy periods to the wasting influence
of atmospheric causes, and the process continued until, in some parts, a
* See Goodchild, • Some Geological Evidence Regarding the Age of the Earth,' Proc.
Roy, Phys. Soc. Edin., xiii. p. 302.
12
GEOLOGY
thickness of many thousands of feet of the older rocks was stripped off.
Thus rocks of very different ages came to be exposed at different parts of
the surface. At the conclusion of this period, which must, if we may
judge by what took place in the meantime, have been a period of
immense length, there began a second great period of subsidence be-
neath the ocean, and the deposition of a new set of strata. The rocks
referred to are those which now form most of the southern part of the
Lake district. They are exposed here and there, also in some parts of
Cumberland, and therefore call for notice here.
{b) The earliest chapter in the history is recorded in an old bed of
shingle, which evidently marks the rolling and wearing action of the sea
upon the loose fragments of rock which were present on the surface as
the land quietly sank beneath the waves.
Then follows a stratum of great interest, thin though it be — the
well-known Graptolitic Mudstone. This is a bed of what was originally
fine mud, evidently formed at a great depth below the level of the sea,
and in very quiet water, far beyond the influence of tides or currents,
and outside the zone of deposition of any muddy outflows brought by
rivers from the land. On the bed of fine clay which slowly accumu-
lated on the sea floor, there lived one set after another of those curious
organisms already referred to as Graptolites. No doubt these, like their
predecessors, lived in little colonies, each moored to the bottom in
much the same way as seaweeds are attached to stones and shells on the
sea floor of the present day. But beyond the fact that they pertained
to the same subdivision of the animal kingdom as those which preceded
them, these and their predecessors had but little in common. Every
one of the older forms that had come into existence had gradually died
out, and those which lived during the earlier part of the Silurian Period
were different in many essential particulars from the graptolites of Ordo-
vician times. A few Brachiopods, and some hardy Crustaceans, lived in the
ocean depths along with the Graptolites. There are many good reasons
for believing that one generation of these Graptolites succeeded another
for a very long time without undergoing any marked change in character,
or without becoming extinct. Moreover, in the quiet depths of the
ocean, where the conditions remained uniform, as they usually do now
over a very large area, the same species of Graptolites were to be found
far and wide wherever the nature of their surroundings remained uni-
form. For this reason as well as others Graptolites have been found to
be of great value as affording a clue to the particular chapter of the
geological record which they represent. To put this statement into
another form : these Graptolites lived over very extensive areas of the
sea bottom, but they throve best only where the water was perennially
clear, or, in other words, where only a very thin film of sediment found
its way to the ocean floor in the course of a century. In many cases it
would appear that the chief deposit there consisted of the remains of
the Graptolites themselves, mingled with a very small proportion of
extremely fine mud, the deposition of which was characterized as much
13
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
by its uniformity of rate as by the enormously long time required for the
accumulation of a single inch. There are many analogous phenomena
recently brought to light in connection with the deep sea oozes of
modern times. By careful study and comparison of these facts over a
large area geologists have now obtained sufficient knowledge to be able
to state with certainty at what particular epoch in the Silurian Period
any given species of Graptolite lived. Or, conversely, if they find the
Graptolite, its occurrence informs them unerringly of the geological
dates of the film of clay in which that particular species was entombed.
These quiet deep-water conditions remained unaltered through a
long period of time. In the meantime important changes of the sea
bottom were in progress elsewhere, and in course of time these gra-
dually affected the area under consideration. The next change gave rise
to a deposit which, although evidently formed in quiet and deep water,
does not appear to have afforded the conditions suitable for the growth
of organisms of any kind. The deposit in question took the form of
very fine grey mud, which in some respects appears to correspond to one
of the grey oceanic oozes of the present day, or, possibly, to the fine
azoic mud which is slowly accumulating in the depths of the Black Sea.
In its present compacted and altered condition we know it by the name
of the Pale Slates — a not altogether appropriate name seeing that, al-
though characterized by a grey tint, the rocks rarely form what may be
called slates, in any sense of the word.
While the deposition of the Pale Slates went on in the tranquil
depths of the sea over the area now under consideration, coarser sedi-
ments, laid down in shallower water, were deposited in the areas to the
north of the Border ; and the same occurred also in what is now the western
part of Wales. The total thickness of the Pale Slates rarely exceeds 600
feet ; but the deposits found nearer the land attain a thickness in both
Wales and Scotland of some thousands of feet. It is only near the
upper and the lower limits that the Pale Slates contain any traces of
life.
After this deep-water and azoic episode in the history of Cumber-
land there followed a long period of conditions of moderate depth, during
which subsidence went on concurrently with the deposition of mud, clay
and sand, which, as in other cases, represents the materials worn off the
land — wherever that may have been — and transported to the sea by the
agency of rivers. It was during this period the Coniston Flags, Coniston
Grits, Bannisdale Slates and the Kirkby Moor Flags, etc., were formed.
The thickness of sediments found in this way cannot be less than 15,000
feet in the north-west of England, and may have been more even than
that.
To-day, these old sediments, indurated and changed in many ways,
are known by the following names, counting from the lowest upward,
and have at least the thicknesses stated : Graptolitic Mudstone and Pale
Slates, 600 feet ; Coniston Flags and Grits, 8,000 feet ; Bannisdale
Slates, 4,000 feet ; Kirkby Moor Flags, 3,000 feet. No traces of
M
GEOLOGY
volcanic action of any kind have yet been found here in rocks of this
age.
Life of the Silurian Period. — As the Ordovician Period was one of
great length many important changes in the organic world took place.
If, to the time required for the evolution of these changes, we add the
enormously long interval represented by the unconformity ; and, again, to
these, add the time required for the accumulation of the Silurian Rocks,
we may be prepared to find that the slow march of organic evolution
had given rise to many and important developments in the organic world.
Most of the Trilobites, a group so characteristic of the different zones of
the Ordovician Rocks, had now died out ; the last of the Graptolites dis-
appeared near the close of the Silurian Period, and so with various other
groups not so conspicuous as fossils. On the other hand, the Arthropoda
developed along a new line, and we find the great water-scorpions, or
Eurypterids, amongst the dominant forms of invertebrate life. Near the
close of the Silurian Period true vertebrates of low zoological grade, make
their appearance. They are represented by several varied types of fishes,
all primitive creatures belonging to the very lowest ranks of the same
group as the sharks, skates, and rays of the present time. These Silurian
fishes can hardly be said to be provided with any true fins except the
tail.
Of the plants of the Silurian Period, again, we know but little.
The few traces of plants that occur in the Cumberland rocks of this age
were probably of the nature of seaweeds.
{c) Taking into account the thickness of rock stripped off by de-
nudation in the interval between the close of the Ordovician Period and
the commencement of Silurian times, and adding to that the time estimated
to be required for the formation of the Silurian sediments, the author of
this article considers that a period of 68,000,000 of years is required.
DEUTEROZOIC PERIOD
Carboniferous Rocks.
B. Upper, including the trae Coal Measures and the Millstone Grit.
A. Lower, including the Yoredale Rocks, the Mountain Limestone, and
the Lower Limestone Shale.
Old Red Rocks.
B. The Upper Old Red Sandstone.
Great Unconformity.
A. Traces of the Caledonian Old Red (Granites, etc.).
Great Unconformity.
IV. Pre-Devonian Unconformity. — {a) Hitherto we have had no
clue to any of the geographical conditions that prevailed during the
periods noticed, except those mentioned in the foregoing notes. But as
we trace the history of Cumberland nearer and nearer to our own times,
more complete evidence is available, and we are able to get a much
clearer insight into the nature of several events of the past. This is
especially true of the period that succeeded Silurian times. The evi-
dence afforded by rocks of this age in southern Scotland informs us that
15
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
after the prolonged period of subsidence, during which the Silurian
Rocks were formed, the sea bottom remained for a time stationary, then
began a set of earth movements which, at great depths, gradually and
quietly compressed the lately-formed strata into folds, closer and closer,
as the compression continued, and at the same time the lateral thrusts
forced up the surface, so that by degrees great ridges of considerable
extent were elevated above the level of the sea. Narrow areas of sea
water were thus isolated by the upheaval, and gradually passed from the
condition of lagoons into that of shallow inland lakes. As the movement
extended, the whole of the part under notice gradually passed into the
state of a continental area, from which the sea margin receded farther
and farther as the upheaval slowly progressed. One of the consequences
of these conditions was that the annual rainfall gradually decreased in
amount, and fell only at irregular and often distant intervals. As a
consequence, vegetation could no longer thrive; land animals, such as
there were at the time, were forced to migrate to districts where the cli-
matal conditions were more favourable ; and hence, by degrees, the whole
area gradually passed into an upland desert region far removed from the
sea. When it did happen to rain the amount precipitated in a given
time was often very large ; so that after one of these occasional thunder-
storms roaring torrents were quickly formed, and soon tore their way
down the hill slopes, thereby spreading great masses of torrential debris
on the plains around. In the intervals between these spates the dry
climate gave rise to great diurnal extremes of temperature, which caused
any rocks exposed to their influence to expand rapidly with the heat
during the day and to contract to the same extent at night, as a con-
sequence of the rapid radiation which always takes place where there is
but a small amount of moisture in the air. In other words, the lately
formed marine sediments, now consolidated into stone, were shivered
into fragments by the diurnal extremes of temperature, in much the same
manner as they are in the Syrian wadies of to-day. The wind blew the
rock fragments about from place to place, bowling them along and
against each other until they were worn into perfectly- rounded grains,
and it finally heaped these sands up in great ridges much as it does in
all desert regions to-day.
Lakes were represented here and there by a few shallow pools, each
one of the same nature as the schatts of Algeria, or the shallow inland
lakes of the Aralo-Caspian area of Central Asia, and containing more or
less saline waters, such as are now to be found in desert regions in various
parts of the world. There is no reason to suppose that the average daily
temperature was higher than we experience in these islands now, but the
maxima and minima were much greater, and it was certainly much hotter
in the sun of a day and equally colder at night, and in this respect more
like the climate of Natal than it is with us now.
Analogy with modern desert areas quite warrants us in picturing to
our mind's eye the skies of these days in ancient Cumberland as usually
cloudless, and as characterized rather by a yellow haze, due to the vast
i6
HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
' ifi
llUPPUR
O ^ LOWLft
OLD RED
SANDSTONE
ORDOVICIAN
L'cdiow ffrovp
Wenhick, Tarnnnon, and Birkhill Qr'/itp
Conislim LitiwMone Qritui)
Milhonm Rocks atul Skiddaw Slates
1 Basalt. Dolerite, atid Qnbhro
Andeaiit, Lavas, and Tuffs
Diorite
Granite and Felsite
TLj- EcEmbin^ drogfiijihirn] tnfltii
SCALE 4 MILES TO AN INCH
THE VICTORIA HISTORY OUHt ,
XGJar thnlnni FW,
Counts Boundary shown thus
HE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND
icio"""
GEOLOGY
quantities of fine dust constantly suspended in the air, than by the tender
blue of the purer skies with which we are familiar.^
Perhaps it may be as well to mention in this place, that concurrently
with the progress of these events in the northern parts of the kingdom,
geographical conditions of a different kind existed further south and south-
east. In the areas referred to, marine sediments, including important beds
of marine limestone, were in process of formation. These are well seen
in the Rhineland, and almost equally well in Devonshire, where they
were first studied by geologists. For the latter reason the southern type
of rocks is termed the Devonian Rocks, and the period when they were
formed, the Devonian Period. Henceforth, therefore, the events now
under description will be referred to here as having occurred during
the Devonian Period. But the northern type of rocks, which consist
largely of sandstones of a dominant red colour, will still be referred to as
the Old Red Sandstone Rocks.
{I)) The Devonian Period in the northern parts of the kingdom was,
as already mentioned, one of considerable terrestrial disturbances, which
manifested themselves by great local upheavals, accompanied by earth-
quakes, and followed by volcanic outbursts, which eventually assumed
extensive proportions. With the volcanoes themselves, as well as with
the stratified rocks that grew up with them, we happen not to be very
much concerned, for reasons which will be stated presently. But the
former presence of the volcanoes has left its mark in Cumberland in a
striking manner, and in many different ways, the nature of which will
be considered after the following preliminary explanation.
(c) There is reason to believe that within the lower part of the core
of a volcano the rocks have been reduced to a pasty or semifluid condition
by the uprise of those superheated alkaline waters, which have already
been mentioned as forming one of the principal factors in all volcanic
eruptions. It is within this plutonic region, which may be situated
several miles below the summit of the volcano, that such rocks as granites
and the rocks allied thereto are generated. Indeed, there is reason to
believe that the greater part of all such plutonic masses have originated
deep within the earth's crust at the root of a volcano. In other words,
areas of granitic rocks generally mark the site of former volcanoes. The
zone within which these rocks are generated may conveniently be re-
ferred to as the ' granitic zone.'
Furthermore, the same superheated alkaline waters, whose uprise is
so essentially connected with volcanic action, permeate the sedimentary
and other rocks contiguous to the lower part of a volcano, and there pro-
duce very important changes by giving rise to what is termed contact
metamorphism. This zone may be referred to as the ' zone of thermo-
metamorphism.'
If the reader will bear these general principles in mind it will
enable him to understand the nature and origin of some important
1 Goodchild, ' Desert Conditions in Britain,' Tram. Geol. Sec. Edin., vii. pp. 203-222
(1896-97).
I 17 c
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
changes which affected the rocks of Cumberland at this period, and which
have left vestiges at many places, both within the county and around it.
These will be stated in historical order, even though doing so involves
a reference to events that took place prior to the period under notice.
{d) During the later history of the Cumberland volcanoes, the gran-
itic zones beneath the focus of each gradually ate their way upwards
through the sedimentary rocks and into the material of the volcano itself;
so that the lavas, tuffs, and intrusive masses of the inner parts of some of
the volcanoes were gradually replaced by, or perhaps transformed into,
material which afterwards consolidated as granitic masses. Furthermore,
with the enlargement of the granitic zones, the zones of thermo-meta-
morphism also extended farther and farther into the overlying rocks, so
that the lately formed volcanic rocks themselves were in some few cases
reduced to a softened state, and kept in that condition long enough to
permit of a certain amount of rearrangement of their constituents. As
the temperature of the whole mass gradually fell, this process finally led
to the crystallization of some of these rearranged materials. The reader
who wishes to understand the geology of the country around Keswick,
Ambleside, Buttermere, etc., should try to comprehend this, for a large
proportion of what was at one time loose fragmentary tuff has been altered
by these changes into rock which, in many cases, can only be distin-
guished from lava by patient investigation in the field, supplemented by
the careful study of thin sections of the rock under the microscope. The
rocks in question were referred to by the Geological Survey officers who
mapped the ground (and who, therefore, had an intimate knowledge of
the true relations of these rocks) as ' altered ashes.' The late Mr. Clifton
Ward very rightly laid great stress upon this point, the importance of
which in the present connection, can hardly be overestimated. It was
not only the tuffs which were altered in this way, but the lavas them-
selves also underwent a certain amount of change by the same process ;
while the sedimentary rocks were first softened and subsequently re-
crystallized to such an extent that they are hardly any longer recognizable
as sediments. A fine series of these altered rocks was placed by Mr. Ward
in the Keswick Museum, the Museum of Practical Geology in London,
and in the Carlisle Museum, and they were admirably described by him
in the Geological Survey Memoir on the ' Northern Part of the English
Lake District.'
[e) Complicated alterations of also the earlier-formed volcanic
rocks later originated as a further consequence of the growth of the vol-
cano and the progressive uprise of the granitic zone at its base. The
lava streams, beds of tuff, dykes and sills, of which the volcano was
built, gradually passed through every stage of conversion into crystalline
masses, and became more and more interlaced with, and traversed by
rocks which had been crystalline from their first stage of consolidation,
until these inner zones of the old volcano assumed the structure of a
complex mass, whose details seem at first sight to offer endless difficulties
to the geologist.
i8
GEOLOGY
Carrock Fell is a striking example of the feature referred to. It
was described at some length by the late Mr. Ward, and has since
formed the subject of an important memoir by Messrs. Marr and
Harker. Another area of the same general nature occurs around the
foot of Thirlmere.^
There are several other areas in the Lake district which are of the
complicated nature here referred to, and as most of these give rise to
striking scenery, the subject can hardly be passed over without some
kind of reference, even though that reference involves certain technic-
alities.
{f) There is another set of phenomena which originated soon
after the close of the Silurian Period, and which gives rise to effects of
considerable commercial importance, as well as being largely concerned
in the evolution of the scenery. This is the phenomenon known as
CLEAVAGE, Under its influence rocks of various kinds split with more
or less facility in parallel directions, which bear no necessary relation to
any of the original planes of structure. All true slates split solely under
the influence of this structure. The exact origin of slaty cleavage has
not yet been quite satisfactorily explained ; but it will suffice for the
purpose at present in view to state that it is certainly due to a slight
rearrangement of the particles composing the rock affected, which has
been brought about by intense lateral pressure exerted under certain
special conditions at present imperfectly understood. The true nature
of cleavage does not strike one so much in connection with the slates
of Wales as it does with those of the Lake district, because in this
latter case the bands which mark the original bedding of the rock are
much more prominently displayed, and because slate in one form or
another is largely quarried and is so extensively used, in Cumberland
especially, for building purposes. It may be remarked here that the
slates of the Lake district do not quite accord with the definition laid
down in text-books, inasmuch as most of them consist of rocks of vol-
canic origin ; and these are not, and never were, rocks of argillaceous
composition, to which, judging by the statements copied into text-books,
cleavage is supposed to be confined.
In whatever way slaty cleavage may have originated, the date when
the structure was impressed upon the rocks is clearly one shortly after
the close of the Silurian Period. It affects the rocks in different degrees,
in accordance with their composition. Tuffs and fine-grained rocks of
argillaceous composition cleave to the highest degree of perfection.
* The explanation generally given of the plutonic phenomena referred to in the last
paragraph is that they are due to the effects of heat given off by incandescent molten rock,
which has been bodily and violently transferred from a lower level to a higher from some zone
of fusion within the earth's crust. It will be seen that the writer of this article regards them
primarily as manifestations of the eflFects of superheated alkaline waters, which have effected a
gradual transformation of rocks in situ, in the case of metamorphic rock, and an equally
gradual replacement in the case of the so-called ' igneous ' rock. According to this view,
therefore, all eruptive rocks represent the products of consolidation from aqueous solutions ;
and water, not dry heat, is the chief agent concerned.
19
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Next to these in this respect come argillaceous limestones, as, for
example, some of the beds of Coniston Limestone. Lavas in Cum-
berland show only faint traces of cleavage, while grits and greywackes
hardly show any cleavage at all. It may be remarked that in North
Wales Pre-Carboniferous rocks of all kinds are cleaved more or less ;
while in Scotland the same rocks, even where most intensely com-
pressed and contorted, rarely show any trace of cleavage. In Ireland
cleavage affects rocks of Carboniferous age, as in the case of the Carboni-
ferous Slate near Cork. Cleavage affects these rocks in Cumberland to
a decreasing extent as we go northward, and it ceases to produce any
marked effect north of an east and west line through Cross Fell. It is
hardly discernible in the northern part of the Caldbeck Fells, where, by
the way, true bedding has been mistaken for cleavage.
(g) After this digression we are in a better position to understand
the events which took place in Cumberland in Devonian times. The
period of upheaval crumpling and cleavage of the strata, added to that
of their subsequent waste and removal by surface agencies, which fol-
lowed the Silurian Period, must have been one of prolonged duration, if
we may judge by the amount of disturbance and the enormous thickness
of rock removed. It seems probable that mountains of considerable
elevation and consisting of these Silurian rocks had arisen, and that it
was in connection with these upheavals that the later set of volcanoes had
arisen to which previous reference has been made. There is good reason
to believe that a considerable mass of these Devonian volcanic rocks
accumulated here, and that they formerly extended, with a marked un-
conformity, over all the Lake district rocks, and have been subsequently
removed by denudation. But although the volcanic rocks themselves
have disappeared, the volcanoes have left their mark in other ways, for
there is reason to believe that several of the granite masses, such as those
of Shap, Skiddaw, and Eskdale, not to mention smaller areas less well
known, mark the site of former volcanoes belonging to the period under
consideration. The granites of Cumberland are therefore of two ages,
Ordovician and Devonian.
In connection with these Devonian volcanoes there was a repetition
of the phenomena already noticed under the Ordovician Period. Con-
tact alteration took place around the granite areas, and the more ancient
lavas and tuffs, more or less altered by changes due to the long-continued
circulation of underground waters, underwent considerable change in
lithological character. It is important to remember in studying this
set of facts that the contact-alteration of rocks which have lost part of
their alkalies and have suffered chemical change in other ways, must
necessarily give rise to a kind of rock quite different from what resulted
from contact-alteration before they were so changed. The effects have
been very remarkable in some cases, and were described many years
ago by Mr. Ward, and more recently, by the light of much fuller
knowledge, by Mr. Harker in the case of the tuffs, etc., around the Shap
granite.
20
GEOLOGY
The decomposition products of the lava have been reconstituted, and
have given rise to Epidote (after Saponite), Garnets, Biotite, Hornblende,
Felspar and other minerals ; while the limestones, where so acted upon,
have passed into crystalline marbles, like those of the counties of Perth,
Aberdeen and Inverness, and now yield Idocrase and other ordinary lime
silicates which occur in impure limestones in general when these are
affected by prolonged contact metamorphism.
Another result of the same cause has been the welding of the cleav-
age planes, which has taken place in zones of variable width around the
intrusive masses, by which the slates have been recompacted.
{h) Life of the Devonian Period. — In Cumberland not a single trace
of organic remains of any kind occurs in connection with the rocks of
this period, because they were mostly of desert origin, and barren of life.
It may, however, be well to make reference to the fact that a great
abundance and variety of animal life is known to have existed in the
seas of the same period. The organic remains found elsewhere in the
deposits formed in the old inland lakes of this time inform us of a great
advance in the evolution of vertebrate life, for we find in these rocks a
considerable variety of fishes whose zoological grades extend from some
of the simplest to some as highly organized as any yet living in the
waters of the present day. Furthermore, vegetation had advanced to an
equal extent.
( / ) Continental conditions accompanied by an arid climate, with
the land undergoing slow upheaval, continued for a very long time after
the decline of the volcanic episode. We know by the important series of
changes which elsewhere took place in both the organic and the inorganic
world that this period must have been one of enormous length. In
Cumberland there exist only very fragmentary records of these changes,
because the period succeeding that which has just been noticed was one
during which a vast thickness of the older strata, including almost every
trace of the volcanic cones, was slowly and gradually swept away. There
is some reason for believing that at the period next to be considered the
area now occupied by Cumberland and Westmorland consisted of a low-
land tract which lay at the foot of a great mountain region nearly co-
incident with the area occupied at present by the southern uplands of
Scotland and the Cheviots. From this area the torrents which were
formed during the irregular periods when rain fell, by degrees transported
vast quantities of shingle, gravel and sand from the mountain area lying
to the north-west, and gradually spread these wasted fragments of the
old northern land over a large part of the area under consideration.
This fact is rendered quite evident by an examination of the materials
of the conglomerates of the Upper Old Red Sandstone in Cumberland.
At Melmerby these contain abundant fragments of the Cheviot andesites,
together with some rocks from the southern uplands of Scotland ; while
the same conglomerates at the foot of UUswater, which form the
rounded hills, Easter and Wester Mell Fells, yield abundant representa-
tives of the Silurian and Ordovician greywackes of the south ofScot-
21
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
land. As we trace these Upper Old Red conglomerates towards Shap,
we find the same evidence continued, with the addition that, near Shap,
fragments of the Shap Granite itself set in, and may be readily gathered
from these rocks.
The full significance of the fact just mentioned may be realized
when it is remembered that such a rock as the Shap Granite could have
been found only at a great depth below the surface, which depth may
well be stated as several miles. In order, therefore, that a rock found
at such a depth should make its appearance at the surface, there must be
an upheaval equal to at least that extent, and the overlying thickness of
rock must have been totally removed. This waste usually takes place pari
passu with the upheaval. At the present day the rate of the removal of
similar rock can hardly exceed one foot in about 4,000 years, and may
be at as slow a rate as one in 6,000. But, if we set the rate at the time
under consideration at one foot in three thousand years, it will be evident
that the time required must extend to a great many millions of years.
And yet all this took place after the period when the Old Red Sand-
stone volcanoes had ceased to erupt, and prior to the commencement of
the deposition of the Upper Old Red ! As an additional fact of the
same nature it may be mentioned that the aggregate thickness of the
strata across whose edges in the Lake district the Upper Old Red un-
conformably lies exceeds/w miles. That is to say, before the Upper Old
Red was laid down, an aggregate thickness of five miles of rock, mostly
of a very durable nature, had been slowly and gradually swept away
from this area.
(_/■) The Life of the Upper Old Red Sandstone. — The rock under
notice having been formed under desert conditions, might be expected
to be, as it actually is, without traces of life. Evidence obtained else-
where, however, shows that under favourable conditions marine life
flourished. In the rivers, and perhaps also in the inland lakes, there still
remained some of the wonderful fishes which characterized the Cale-
donian Old Red Sandstone, but nearly all of them are of different species
— the long lapse of time since the commencement of the older period,
added to the equally long time represented by the great unconformity,
having sufficed for the gradual evolution of many new forms and the
consequent extinction of those of the older types.
{k) A very long period of time is implied by the vast unconformity
which followed the Silurian Period and preceded the formation of the
rocks of Devonian age. To that there must be added the time required
for the formation of the Old Red Sandstone itself. If, instead of using
these data in computing the time required, we base this estimate upon
the rate of formation of the marine limestones formed elsewhere during
the period under consideration (assuming that rate to be one foot in
25,000 years), we arrive at a total of 250,000,000 years for the period
between the close of the Silurian Period and the commencement of Car-
boniferous times.
V. Carboniferous Period. — {a) With the deposition of the
22
GEOLOGY
Upper Old Red Sandstone commenced an important change in the
order of things. From being part of a great continental upland, far
from the sea, with a small and irregular rainfall, and with but scanty
traces of life, it gradually passed to conditions in all essential respects
almost the very opposite. The change was brought about, first, by a
cessation of the repeated upheavals of the land, which had previously
gone on so long a time, and then to an equally slow and gradual
movement in the opposite direction. As the land quietly subsided the
sea, which was distant at the outset, gradually advanced nearer and
nearer. With closer proximity to the sea, the rainfall became more
regular, and the former extremes of temperature were gradually miti-
gated. Finally, the climate passed from one of a continental type to the
type usually found under insular conditions. With the advent of condi-
tions more favourable to life, a varied and abundant vegetation began to
spring up, and animal life on the land, so scarce during the former
period, now immigrated in great force ; and its growth advanced by
leaps and bounds. The transition phases in climate are marked by a
series of deposits which English geologists term the Lower Limestone
Shale, which in Ireland form part of the Carboniferous Slate, and
which the geologists of Scotland know as the Ballagan Beds. The
general character of these rocks is very uniform, wherever they occur
throughout the kingdom. They are very imperfectly developed on the
margin of the Lake district near Penruddock, but are much better seen
at several places in Westmorland, notably at Shap Summit. They also
occur in tlae north-east of the county, and are traceable at Melmerby.
In general terms they may be said to consist of old beds of clay, silt and
sand, which were deposited mainly in sea water, in shallow lagoons and
in deltas, at a time when the subsidence of the land first gave admittance
to the sea, and just when the climate was changing from the arid condi-
tion of Old Red times to the humid climate that succeeded, or from
a continental climate to one that was insular.
The general behaviour of these old sediments where they are
studied over a large area, shows that their materials have been trans-
ported in the main in a south-easterly direction. We may conclude
from that fact that the old land from whose waste they were derived lay
somewhere to the north-west.
The deposition of the Upper Old Red Sandstone had not by any
means quite levelled up all the inequalities of the surface. One of the
larger ridges thus left can easily be made out still. It ranged in a
nearly east and west direction through Cumberland, passing through
Whitehaven, the south side of Ullswater, Penrith, below Cross Fell,
past the High Force in Teesdale, beyond which point the evidence
fails.
{b) After a time, as the land slowly sank, the sea advanced farther
and farther northward, and Cumberland subsided at a sufficiently rapid
rate to allow of the extension of fairly deep and quite clear sea water
over the greater part of the area. After that stage had been reached
23
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
there set in a very long period during which the principal materials laid
down upon the sea bottom were beds of limestone, all of them more or
less of the nature of the various calcareous oozes which are in process of
formation in the deeper recesses of the ocean at the present day. There
is no proof of the existence of anything at all resembling coral reefs ;
although, as is well known, isolated groups of corals, all belonging to
an extinct order, locally occurred in abundance. The general nature of
the fossils found in these limestones suggests the presence of equable and
moderately warm surface currents, which are usually favourable to the
development of animal and vegetable organisms.
With the evidence we now possess it is not difficult to fill in a few
details regarding the physical geography of the Cumberland area at this
time. To begin with a feature about which a widespread misapprehen-
sion exists : There is not a particle of evidence to show that the present
Lake district represents an old island in the seas of the period under
notice. There was, it is true, the easterly ridge already referred to ;
but the subsidence of the sea bottom carried this below water at an
early stage, and there is not a single fact that would indicate an area
of even shallow water, let alone an island, which coincides with any
part of the present Lake district. It will be shown presently that
the Lake district as an upland area did not come into existence until
Tertiary times. We have clear evidence of the delta of a great river,
which represents the materials brought south-eastward from a land
area somewhere to the north-west. As the land subsided the seaward
edge of the delta receded in the direction of the continent. A study
of the present distribution of the terrigenous deposits of this period (that
is to say, the gravels, sands, and muds derived from the land, as dis-
tinguished from the limestones) shows that the axis of the delta lay far
to the east of the area under notice. As a consequence we find the
proportional thickness of the deposits from clear and quiet water to that
of those deposits which have been mechanically transported from the
land steadily increasing as we advance from east to west. This is true of
the rocks belonging to the period under notice, not only in Cumberland,
but also in most other parts of the kingdom as well.
To gain a clear conception of the sequence of events to which the
Lower Carboniferous Rocks of Cumberland are due, the reader should
endeavour to realize the effisct of periodic subsidences of level alternating
with periods when the land was stationary, or even subject to occasional
oscillations of level. With a subsidence the clear water of the sea
advances over an area where prior to that subsidence there stood the
estuary lagoons and shallow seas of a delta, the waters of which were
more or less turbid and laden with the materials wasted from the old
land. While the land remained stationary the delta gradually pushed
seaward and covered the deposits found in clear water with the
sediments derived from the land. With oscillations of level, in which
the net result of the movement is one of subsidence, alternations of
deposits proper to clear water alternate with the clay, sand and gravel,
24
GEOLOGY
and other terrigenous deposits from the land. If, further, this con-
ception can be still more extended by realizing that the various deposits
laid down under any given set of conditions formed a series of crescents
one within another, in which the inner crescents are made of coarse
materials transported from the land, and the outer ones of organico-
chemical deposits laid down in the clear water of the sea, the reader
may obtain a good generalized view of the sequence of events that arose
during Carboniferous times in Cumberland.
It has already been stated that, while purely marine conditions pre-
vailed in Cumberland and in the areas to the south-east, those not farther
off than the south of Scotland were more or less of an estuarine nature.
Furthermore, no traces of any kind of volcanic action occur in these
rocks in Cumberland, although there is abundant and perfectly clear
evidence of the existence of numerous small volcanoes in the northern
area referred to. To put this statement into a more definite form :
While a deep-sea limestone was in process of formation, say at Greystoke,
deposits of fine mud were being laid down in the Bewcastle area, and
volcanoes were in full activity in Dumfries and Roxburgh. Further
north still, at the same period, there was land, upon which flourished a
luxuriant vegetation, whose remains being drifted seaward, and becoming
entombed in the terrigenous sediments, gave rise to much carbonaceous
matter, which in extreme cases took the form of seams of oil-shale and
beds of coal. It is the presence in deposits of the same age as that of the
limestones of Greystoke Park of an abundance of these carbonaceous
materials that has given rise to the name Carboniferous Limestone, which
is applied to the rocks now under consideration. Around the head
waters of the River Eden the aggregate thickness of this subdivision
attains to fully 3,500 feet ; but as these rocks are traced towards the
Solway, or in other words as they are traced from an area where they
were found under deep-water conditions towards the part where the
conditions on the whole were shallower, the limestones gradually be-
come thinner, and are more and more divided by beds of shale and
sandstone, until in the northern part of the county the aggregate thick-
ness of the beds of limestone is barely one-tenth as much near the mouth
of the Eden as it is near its source.
(c) The Carboniferous Limestone Series is locally divisible into a
lower subdivision, to which the term Mountain Limestone is usually
restricted, and an upper, the Yoredale Rocks. These two subdivisions,
bracketed with the Lower Limestone Shales, form the Lower Carboni-
ferous Rocks of geologists. In Cumberland the Carboniferous Limestone
Series may be said to present three types. Of these we may take as
one type that found in south-east Cumberland, which is much the same
as that occurring throughout most of Westmorland and north-west
Yorkshire. In its fullest development this consists of an almost undivided
mass of pure grey marine limestone, locally exceeding 2,000 feet
in thickness. Above this come the Yoredale Rocks, which consist
essentially of a great mass of shale with interbedded sandstones and flag-
25
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
stones, and with a few relatively thin beds of marine limestone, which
are wonderfully persistent in character over a very large area. The
total thickness of this subdivision ranges from 1,500 to 2,000 feet.
These Yoredale Rocks are of great commercial importance in Cum-
berland, as being the chief repository of much of the haematite and
nearly all the lead ores. Their details are therefore given more fully
on pp. 27, 28.
The second type of Lower Carboniferous Rocks is found in north
Cumberland, and is like that which characterizes these rocks through-
out Northumberland, and indeed most of southern Scotland as well.
In this type (which, of course, graduates into each of the others) the
Mountain Limestone consists essentially of a thick pile of sandstones,
with subordinate shales, and with a few thin and impure beds of lime-
stone, which represent the landward edge of the thick pile of wedges of
limestone found on the same horizon to the south-east. Putting this
statement in another form, we may say that the thick mass of limestone
found at the head of Edenside gradually gives place, bed by bed, to
sandstones and shales as the rocks trend from south to north, the change
affecting the limestones from below upwards, so that the lowest changes
farthest south and the upper retains its character farthest north. In
the north Cumberland type the Yoredale Rocks, on the other hand, re-
tain their general character with very little change. These limestones,
however, also show a tendency to split up and to pass into sandstones and
shales, the lowest limestones changing first as they are traced from south
to north, as in the case of the older group.
The third type is that occurring in west Cumberland. This de-
velopment of the Lower Carboniferous Rocks is unlike the others in
some important respects. The essential difference is due to the fact
that the chief axis of the delta during Lower Carboniferous times lay
far to the east of Cumberland. As a result of these conditions more
sand and terrigenous materials of other kinds were deposited on the
east side of Cumberland than over the area where the Lake district is
now, where the water remained deeper and clearer. Hence the chief
deposit laid down was thalassic and consisted mainly of beds of lime-
stone. These, traced from east to west, gradually become thinner, the
beds thinning away from below upwards, as in the other cases noted,
but with this difference, that, in the present case, they are not replaced
by sandstones or shales. The changes just described affect all the Moun-
tain Limestone and the Yoredale Rocks as well. The result is that
bed after bed of limestone, from below upwards, thins away as we
advance from Penrith in the direction of Whitehaven, until nearly the
whole of the Mountain Limestones have coalesced into one or two thin
beds. The sandstones and shales of the Yoredale Rocks have likewise
thinned in the same manner, so that at their westernmost exposure the
limestones have nearly all come together, and now form one almost
undivided mass. The so-called Mountain Limestone of west Cumber-
land is thus of Yoredale age — the underlying beds having thinned away
26
GEOLOGY
entirely. It may not be out of place to mention here that the present
writer determined this point in the early ' seventies,' and officially re-
ported the foregoing conclusion to the Director of the Geological Survey
in May, 1874.
As the Yoredale Rocks are of considerable commercial importance,
some details regarding them are given here, as follows : —
The highest beds are stated first ; and the local names, as employed
in Alston Moor and elsewhere, are given in square brackets : —
Yoredale Rocks
(i) Upper Section : —
"Thickness about 500 feet, strata very persistent. The sandstones and
shales are not subject to the westerly thinning that affects rocks of
this kind which belong to the Lower Section : —
Sandstones and shales, with an important and very persistent coal
seam [The Tanhill Seam] which ranges up to 4 feet in thick-
ness.
Shales with [The Fell Top] Limestones.
Shale.
Limestone [The Crag Limestone of Alston = the Crow Limestone
and Chert of Yorkshire] .
Sandstone (with two or more coals, locally worked) [The Fire-
stone, Ten Fadom Grit].
Shale.
Limestone [The Little Limestone = the Red Beds Limestone and
Chert].
Coarse grits [The Coal Sills] with a very constant seam of coal [The
Tindal Fell Seam] which ranges to 4 feet 6 inches, and is
locally accompanied by other seams. These represent the
Edge Coals of the Lothians i^ide Gunn, Trans. Geol. Soc. Edin.
vii. 367), the Lickar Coals of Northumberland, and shales and
cherts.
The foregoing strata represent the lower part of the Whitehaven
Coal Measures.
(2) Lower Section : —
Total thickness ranging from 500 feet on the west of Cumberland, to
1,200 on the east : —
Limestone [The Main, Twelve Fadom, Dryburn, or Great Lime-
stone] .
Coal, sandstone, shale.
[The Limestone Post = The Upper Undersett Limestone of north-
west Yorkshire.]
Coarse Grit [The Quarry Hazel of Alston].
Shales, thinning westward.
Siliceous limestone {i.e. containing organic silica, and not sand) [The
Four Fadom, Low Dean, or Lower Undersett Limestone].
27
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Sandstones and shales, thinning westward.
[The Three Yards, or Acre] Limestone, persistent.
Sandstones and shales, thinning westward [Six Fadom Hazel].
[The Five Yards, or Eelwell] Limestone, persistent.
Sandstone and shales, thinning westward.
[The Scar, the Middle or Fourth Sett Limestone], persistent.
The foregoing strata probably represent what has been called the
' Carboniferous Limestone ' of Scotland.
Sandstones, persistent coal and shales, thinning westward.
Two thin, but very persistent, limestones [The Cockle-Shell Lime-
stone, and Post Limestone].
Sandstones and shales, thinning westward [Tyne Bottom Plate].
[The Tyne Bottom, Simonstone, or Fifth Sett, Limestone], gener-
ally persistent, but somewhat thinner in north Cumberland.
Sandstones, shales, and some thin limestones, the two former thin-
ning westward.
[The Hardra, Jew, Oxford, or Sixth Sett, Limestone], generally per-
sistent, but becoming thinner towards the north-east.
Sandstones and shales, thinning westward of Cumberland, and thick-
ening to the north-east.
[Top of the Mountain Limestone], whose calcareous members have
been already referred to as thinning steadily toward the north-
west, and as being replaced by the Fell Sandstones and the
lower half of the Oil Shales of the so-called ' Calciferous
Sandstone Series,' as they trend towards the north and the
north-east.
So far as the Lower Carboniferous Rocks are concerned, Cumberland
may be regarded as the area within which there set in changes of a
most important character from both a theoretical and an economic point
of view.
Hardly anywhere else in the kingdom can there be found types so
diverse as the almost purely thalassic limestone series of West Cumber-
land, the mixed estuarine, marine and volcanic types of the Borders,
and the normal types of these rocks as developed in the south and south-
east of the county. In comparing them as a whole with their chrono-
logical equivalents in Scotland, the salient points of contrast are between
shallow-water and volcanic types on the north, with dominantly deep-
water and non-volcanic types on the south.
{d) At the close of the Lower Carboniferous times there appears to
have been a very general cessation of deposit over a large area in the
northern parts of Britain, including Scotland. It may have coincided
with a temporary, but very general, upheaval of the sea bottom, and with
more or less removal of the sediments already laid down. This episode
appears to have lasted a considerable time.
Next followed a second period of slow subsidence and consequent
deposition, during which the so-called Millstone Grit and the true Coal
Measures were laid down. Their history may be told in a few words ;
28
GEOLOGY
for, although they undoubtedly represent a vast interval of time, the
physical conditions under which they were formed varied but little from
first to last. The evidence seems to show that there was still a great
continental area to the north-west, from which rivers continued, as in
former times, to transport the spoils of the land towards the south-east.
But at no time throughout a period which must have been one of enor-
mous length, did the land ever subside to an extent sufficient to admit of
the deep sea. Sand and mud, and occasional beds of fine gravel, were
gradually transported seaward, chiefly at the bottom of the rivers ; depo-
sition nearly all the time being regulated by the subsidence. During
those periods when a greater depression took place, very little mud found
its way seaward, except such as was for a time held in suspension in the
water, and which thereafter gently subsided to the bottom, usually in
thin layers. In the deeper-water phases almost the only deposit laid
down consisted of the finer remains of land vegetation, which, after
drifting seawards, eventually became water-logged and quietly sank
to the sea floor, there to form the materials out of which in time the
chemical action set up by the sulphate of lime in the sea water gave
rise to the hydrocarbon compounds which eventually consolidated as
coal.
Pretty pictures, relating to Carboniferous times in Cumberland,
have often been drawn, in which the primaeval forests, from whose
remains coal has been formed, have been represented as flourishing
on old hills, whose remains are now supposed to be left in the Lake
district. One would fain believe that these works of art were
founded upon well -observed facts ; but, unfortunately, that is not
the case. Woodlands there were, it is true, and we can easily con-
ceive what both their broader features and their minor details must
have been like ; but both the growing trees and the land upon
which they are supposed to have arisen had no place anywhere near
Cumberland.
A small patch of true Coal Measures, let down by a powerful fault,
occurs in the upper part of the basin of the Eden at Argill, near Stain-
moor. Small as the outlier is, it suffices to show that Coal Measures
once extended over a much larger area, and were more fully developed,
than had been supposed previous to the discovery of this outlier by the
present writer in 1872. This outlier probably represents the only patch
of true Coal Measures occurring anywhere in Britain to the north of
Lancashire.
Coal seams, throughout the whole of the Carboniferous Rocks, set in
one after another from above downwards, as the rocks are followed from
south to north, and thick coals of good quality occur on various plat-
forms in different parts. It is usual, and is, perhaps, advisable also, to
designate any strata that yield coals of economic value ' Coal Measures.'
Both the lowest beds of the Upper Carboniferous Rocks and the upper
beds of the Lower Carboniferous yield valuable coal seams in Cumber-
land. It would prevent much confusion if this well-known fact were
29
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
expressed by speaking of these productive beds as ' Coal Measures,' with
some qualification connected with the locality where they occur. Thus
we may speak of the Whitehaven Coal Measures, even though the beds
in question may prove to be (as the present writer has long believed) of
the same age as the Upper Yoredales and the Millstone Grit. In like
manner we may speak of the Brampton Coal Measures, or the Newcastle
Coal Measures, even though it may prove, as just stated, that no rem-
nants of the true Coal Measures occur anywhere in Britain to the north
of the tiny remnant before referred to as occurring in the basin of the
Eden.
{e) Organic Remains from Carboniferous Rocks. — Just as the animals
and plants of the Devonian Period mark a stage of organic evolution
greatly in advance of that presented by Silurian life, so does the life of
the Carboniferous Period, on the whole, surpass the Devonian. Probably
the waters of the Carboniferous seas in the Cumberland area had a
moderately high maximum temperature, and a minimum temperature
but little below the mean. These are amongst the conditions most
favourable for the development of animal life in the sea ; and they are
almost equally favourable for the growth of vegetation on the land. The
chief organic advance was made by the Vertebrata, as some of the higher
grades of fishes (probably the Dipnoi, the ancient representatives of the
modern Ceratodus) gradually took to an amphibious mode of life, which
in time led to the evolution of the Amphibia, from which parent stock
first the Anomodontia, and then the true Reptiles and the Birds, as well
as the Mammalia, eventually arose.
It is very interesting to note that several air-breathing Invertebrates,
of forms not very distantly removed from those now living, had already
come into existence in Carboniferous times. The Scorpions and the
Galley Worms are especially noteworthy in this respect.
As for the vegetation, we have abundant evidence of what that was
like, even though the remains are those of plants grown at a distance.
No plants of grade quite as high as the true Conifers had yet arisen.
The bulk of the forest growth consisted of gigantic plants of much lower
grade than the firs, a large number of which were allied to the Club
Mosses (especially to Selaginella). With these were others, distantly
allied to the modern Equisetums. It is from the spores, and from the
macerated leaves and vegetable tissues of these in general, that our coal
seams have arisen.
[f) A computation of the time required for the formation of the
Lo\'0'er Carboniferous Rocks, estimated chiefly on the assumed rate of
one foot in 25,000 years for the marine limestones, gives 62,000,000
years. To this has to be added the time required for the formation of
the coal seams and the other rocks of Upper Carboniferous age, occur-
ring in other parts of Britain, which is here set at 31,800,000 years.
This gives a total of 93,800,000 years as the time required for the
formation of the whole of the Carboniferous Rocks.
30
GEOLOGY
NEOZOIC PERIOD
Post-Pliocene Deposits : Peat, Alluvium, Raised Beaches, and the
various deposits of Glacial origin.
Unconformity.
Dykes and Mineral Veins of Tertiary age.
Unconformity.
Tertiary Cretaceous rocks represented by scattered Chalk flints, etc.
Great Unconformity.
Lias,
Rh^tic Rocks.
New Red Rocks :
B. Keuper Marl.
St. Bees Sandstone.
Bunter Marl.
A. Magnesian Limestone and Plant Beds,
Penrith Sandstone and the Brockrams,
Great Unconformity.
VI. The New Red Series. — {a) After the protracted period of
subsidence and deposition, during which the Carboniferous Rocks were
formed — a period which may well have extended over very many millions
of years — the downward movement which prevailed during that period
came to an end, and a movement in the opposite direction began. Just
as in previous times the old Silurian sediments, after a protracted period
of subsidence, were gradually crumpled and folded by earth creep, so
that they were slowly squeezed up into mountain ranges and gradually
wasted away ; so it was with the Carboniferous sediments at the period
now under consideration. The evidence clearly points to the fact that
part, at least, of the area which now forms the Lake district was one of
the chief centres of upheavals at this early period. So, too, with part
of the area of the southern uplands of Scotland. The old Carboniferous
sediments, after being carried downward by subsidence miles below the
sea level, and there gradually folded, were slowly upheaved, folded by
lateral thrusts, and fractured and faulted as they arose. As the masses
slowly and quietly emerged and were elevated into uplands, atmospheric
waste favoured the removal of the rock material, just as it had done with
the predecessors of these rocks on the same spot in times previous. And
just as in former times the rate of upheaval in the earlier stages of
movement kept slightly ahead of the rate of waste, so the newly-exposed
land gradually increased in elevation, and Cumberland found itself farther
and farther removed from the sea, and therefore from the main source of
rain. Hence, after a long transition period, desert conditions again set
in. The change of conditions was a very gradual one, so that many
wadies were gradually shaped by the streams before the period when the
rainfall reached its minimum. In later times these old valleys, or wadies,
were gradually filled up by the waste of the rocks of which their sides
were formed. It may be repeated here that, under continental condi-
tions, where the air generally contains a smaller percentage of aqueous
vapour than usual, the sun's heat exercises a much more powerful influ-
ence by day, because the temperature of its rays near the earth has not
been lowered by a passage through the moist aerial screen. In like
31
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
manner, the same envelope of aqueous vapour which acts as a sunshade
during the day, acts equally as a blanket by night, by checking the radi-
ation from the earth. Therefore, where there is but little aqueous
vapour present in the air, the rocks exposed to the sun very soon become
hot during the day, and cool down with equal rapidity during the night.
Hence the difference between the daily maximum temperature and the
nightly minimum is much greater in an arid than in a humid district.
As a consequence of a great diurnal range of temperature, rocks expand
greatly during the heat of the day, and contract to an equal extent during
the cold of the night. Hence they crack under these conditions and fly
to splinters in a manner and to an extent both very different from what
we are accustomed to meet with in more humid climates. Moreover,
in an arid region wind comes into action to a much greater extent than
water, from which cause the character of the rock fragments is different
in many important respects from those found in sedimentary rocks of the
ordinary type.
((^) The history of the events that ensued is much as follows :
First there set in continental conditions, with the land rising locally at a
faster rate than it was wasted by denudation. In the earlier part of the
period there was a moderate rainfall, so that river-courses were shaped
on the flanks of the uplands much as they are shaped here now. With a
further uprise of the land, and a consequent recession of the sea margin
to a still greater distance, the average quantity of aqueous vapour in the
atmosphere steadily decreased, and the rainfall therefore became very ir-
regular. The total quantity per annum must have been small in amount,
and perhaps rarely exceeding ten inches, and most even of that was pre-
cipitated in connection with the torrential rain accompanying thunder-
storms. The waste of the rocks took place chiefly through the strains
set up by the rapid expansions and contractions arising from the great
diurnal range of temperature. In other words, the rocks were splintered,
shattered, and broken up by mechanical causes instead of being, as they
are here now, mainly decomposed by chemical means. As the volume of
the streams diminished with the rainfall, so that their channels remained
dry except during heavy rain, there was little or none of that rounding
which characterizes river gravel in general. Each rock fragment, as it
split up into smaller and smaller pieces, remained angular from first
almost to last, and most of the material detached from the rocks at the
sides of the valleys remained as screes until a violent flood shifted them
in great masses to the low ground. As the fragments split up the finer
chips were driven by the wind against each other, or used in the natural
sand blasts by which rock erosion was partly accomplished, until the
chips were reduced to the finest dust. In this state they served to load
the atmosphere with fine particles, which occasionally gathered into
clouds and were then blown far and wide as desert dust. The more
durable rock materials, chiefly quartz, which long resisted reduction in
size, were blown to and fro by the wind so that the grains became worn
by attrition against each other and eventually assumed that rounded form
32
GEOLOGY
which only the grains of desert sand ever take, and which at once serves
to distinguish grains of sand so formed from similar grains worn by
moving waters. The prolonged action of the wind acting upon large
bodies of sand served eventually to pile the sand into great dunes, whose
long axes in Cumberland ran north and south (as if their form were
determined by the earth's rotation) and whose steeper sides faced to the
west. It is these old desert sand-dunes which now form the Penrith
Sandstone, to be referred to in more detail presently.
(c) With an irregular rainfall, small in total amount, there could be
but little vegetation, and what little there was must have consisted of
those species which had gradually adapted themselves to the arid condi-
tions. Their nature is unknown, for no traces of them have been met
with in the old sand-dunes ; but all analogy would seem to point to their
being hard, thick-leaved and scrubby, with long roots adapted for exten-
sion far down into what little damp soil they found. Probably many of
them were armed with thorns, to enable them to hold their own against
the few animals who were driven to use them as food.
Animal life is always directly or indirectly dependent upon vegeta-
tion, so that desert conditions have sometimes been defined as those which
are unsuitable for carnivorous animals. Hence, whatever may have been
the case in those parts of the world where humid conditions obtained,
we may take it for granted that the only terrestrial forms of vertebrate
life were those of animals whose structure enabled them to stand long
droughts, and to travel easily from one part of the desert to the other
where there happened to be suitable feeding-ground for the time being.
So far as we can form an opinion from the only vestiges that are left,
which are almost exclusively spoors of one kind or another, the animals
in question were chiefly reptiles. If we may judge by the variety of
these footprints, the animals must have been very diverse in form and size.
Some appear to have been squat and thick, with perhaps the form of tor-
toises. Others were more slender, and may well have been crocodilian in
form. Others, again — and these probably represented some of the most
advanced forms — were reptiles of kangaroo-like shape, with long and stiff
tails, and with the hind limbs bigger than the fore, from which we may
conclude that they occasionally progressed by the hind limbs alone. The
zoological grade of some of these appears to have been intermediate be-
tween some low vertebrate form with affinities not far removed from the
Amphibia, and another belonging to the ancestral stock of the Mammalia,
of a structural type not far removed from that of the Echidna and the
duck mole of Australia of to-day. Many of the Reptiles of this period
belong to the Anomodontia, whose structural characters place them in
the systematic position referred to. These Reptiles are regarded as modi-
fications derived from an Amphibian stock, which, in the course of long
ages, and as a consequence of a gradual change in physical conditions,
became adapted to a life exclusively upon land. Of mammals and birds
there is no trace, and there is reason to believe that they had not yet
come into existence.
I 33 D
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
It should be again mentioned here that the land surface upon which
the old screes and desert sands were laid down was very irregular. One
of the chief depressions lay between where Appleby and Armathwaite
are now — though the reader must guard himself against supposing that
the depression referred to bore the slightest relation to the inequalities of
the present surface. It was on the eastern slopes of this hollow that the
chief deposit of the old screes took place. It is this which now forms
the Brockrams of Edenside and Whitehaven. In the deeper part of the
hollow little else than wind-blown sands were swept, and it is from these
that, as already mentioned, the Penrith Sandstone has been formed. The
depression must have exceeded 1,200 feet in depth.
id) Some time after this hollow had been nearly filled up by the
old screes and desert sands, one of the great terrestrial undulations to
which the elevations and depressions of the land are due gradually
reached the site of Cumberland. The sea gradually approached, the
climate ameliorated, rain fell regularly, and vegetation of a different kind,
chiefly allied to the Cycads and some primitive types of Conifers, began
to spring up. Under these conditions the character of the strata that
were deposited changed by slow degrees, and sandstones and clays of
almost normal character were laid down., It is these which form the
well-known Plant Beds, which, although best developed near Appleby,
are also found within the Cumberland boundary {Desert Conditions^ p.
218).
{e) As the wave of depression slowly passed over the land, the sea
once more gained admittance. It was probably never very deep here
under these conditions, but to the east its depth was greater, and a thick
mass of limestone, which was originally not very different in its character
from the Mountain Limestone, was gradually formed. The fossils it
contains inform us that the descendants of the Invertebrate animals
which peopled the Carboniferous seas had not changed very much from
the form of their ancestors. Some had died out, and some new forms
had come in from other areas ; but as most of them consist of lowly
forms of life, which are least prone to change, the assemblage as a
whole reminds one very much of what we meet with in the limestone
which preceded it. This later limestone is called the Magnesian Lime-
stone. In the upper part of the basin of the Eden it is about thirty feet
thick, but that thickness lessens as we trace it north-westward, and in
many places in Cumberland it may never have been deposited at all. It
is well seen on the shore south of Whitehaven, where it yields fossils
which tell us plainly of its marine origin.
North Cumberland was apparently not submerged at this period,
so that it is more than likely that some of the strange uncouth reptilians
may have wandered there on the seaward margin of the old land, while
marine animals were living in the sea only a few miles further south.
If we measure geological episodes by centuries, the period required
for the formation of the Magnesian Limestone must have been one of
great length, for there is little reason for regarding it as having been
34
GEOLOGY
formed at a much greater rate than any other limestone, and it is fully
550 feet in thickness on the eastern side of England.
Another phase of the terrestrial undulations finally reached Britain
soon after the Magnesian Limestone had been formed. It would seem,
judging by the evidence, that this undulation at first took the form of a
local upheaval, sufficient in amount to elevate the lately-formed rocks into
land; and it endured long enough to permit of a certain amount of
waste and subsequent removal of the strata.
(/) Then came another phase of the undulation, the effisct of
which appears to have been to further elevate the land — perhaps only to
a small vertical extent — over a large area of western Europe. The sea
margin, in an easterly direction at any rate, had now receded several
hundreds of miles ; and we find instead of marine conditions, one or
more great and shallow inland lakes, the strata formed in which show
unmistakable evidence of a return of the desert conditions which had
characterized the period before that of the Magnesian Limestone. The
Cumberland lake received its waters, in small quantities at a time, from
the adjacent mountain areas, some of which may have coincided with
part of the present southern uplands of Scotland. There were certainly
hills near where Moffat is now, and so there were in Galloway. Criffel
is known to have formed part of an upland area at this time, for we
have the old screes and wady deposits of this period left, even yet, in many
places in that part of Galloway. This lake must have been comparable,
in many respects, to the Salt Lake of to-day, and to many others of the
same type as those existing in central Asia. It certainly extended eastward
from Cumberland, past Middlesborough ; and the same lake, or others of
the same kind contemporaneous with it, existed in North Germany, and
even Russia. Westward, it extended at least as far as the north of
Ireland. It had no outlet, and the whole of the water carried into it by
the few streams by which it was fed was dissipated by evaporation.
Hence the various substances carried in solution into the lakes gradually
accumulated, and eventually separated out in the crystalline form, when
their respective points of saturation were reached. Amongst these sub-
stances were carbonate of iron (subsequently consolidating as haematite)
carbonate of magnesia, sulphate of lime (which consolidated as gypsum)
chloride of sodium (common salt) and other compounds of lesser im-
portance in the present connection. It is to this episode that we owe
our chief deposits of haematite and manganese ; and it is likewise to the
infiltrations from the bottom of this old lake that we owe the widespread
staining of Carboniferous and older rocks of Cumberland, and also the
conversion of many of the limestones of that county into dolomite. The
rocks formed under the conditions described are the Bunter Marl, which
is about 250 feet thick on the average.
(g) After a long time the lake gradually became shallower, and
instead of deposits of clay, beds of sand, alternating with beds of marl,
were formed. This sand, afterwards consolidated into the sandstone
which is known to us as the Corby Sandstone, St. Bees Sandstone, or
35
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Bunter Sandstone, differs from the Penrith Sandstone not only in having
been laid down almost entirely by water (instead of being deposited by
the wind as desert sand-hills), but its general aspect is different in many
respects, amongst which may be mentioned that it always contains flakes
of mica, which is entirely absent from the Penrith Sandstone. It almost
certainly overspread the whole of Cumberland and the greater part of
Britain, as well as a large part of western Europe.
The few organic remains tell us of the former presence of reptiles
more or less like those whose footprints occur in the Penrith Sandstone.
Evidently these animals also were very varied in both form and size ;
and it is quite clear from the footprints they have left that they often
wandered over the half-dried mud or waded in the shallows of the old
lakes, where somehow they managed to pick up a scanty subsistence.
Probably they were attracted to the shallows by the chance of meeting
with more succulent vegetation than was to be found on the drier parts
of the land. Some of them may have been carnivorous, but as we have
only the footprints to judge by we cannot be at all sure upon this
point.
The St. Bees Sandstone, where fully developed, measures about
1, 800 feet, but it is only in a few places that anything like the original
thickness has survived the many subsequent periods of denudation.
{h) During the later part of the episode just noticed, the evidence
seems to show that the old lakes were often completely dried up, and
then the wind piled up sandhills, just as it did before. Soon after that
it appears that there was again a somewhat abrupt lowering of the land,
and a temporary return to more humid climatal conditions. Then
followed a repetition of the conditions under which the Bunter Marl
was formed, with the formation of rock-salt, gypsum, and dolomite, as
before. It was under these conditions that the Keuper Marls were
formed. The lower beds of these are well seen at Stanwix. They reach
a thickness of a little over 900 feet west of CarUsle, and between that and
1,000 feet appears to be their normal thickness all over Britain. It is in
the Keuper Marl that most of the Midland rock-salt and gypsum occurs.
(?) The rocks which were formed during the great continental
phase above described are now usually referred to collectively as the
New Red. The earlier-formed part may be conveniently classed as the
Lower New Red, which comprises the Penrith Sandstone and its associ-
ated breccias or ' brockrams,' and the Plant Beds, and next above them
the Magnesian Limestone. These three subdivisions are frequently re-
ferred to collectively under the name of Dyas, though the older name
just mentioned is better in many respects. The term ' Permian,' at one
time used for them, is unsuitable for many reasons, and many geologists
are agreed that it had better be dropped.
The whole of the Red Rocks above the Magnesian Limestone are
best referred to under their old name of Upper New Red, a more suitable
term than Trias. Their subdivisions are, at the base the Bunter Marl,
next above that the St. Bees Sandstone, at the top of all the Keuper
36
GEOLOGY
Marl. The aggregate thickness of the Upper New Red (Trias), in
Cumberland, exceeds 3,000 feet.
The present author, taking into account the full extent of the un-
conformity at the base of the New Red, and adding to it the time im-
plied by that needed for the formation of the marine types of the rocks
of the same age deposited elsewhere, has estimated their time value at
132,000,000 years.
Forms of Life associated with the New Red. — Attention has been
specially called to the evidence of a period of enormous length which
intervened between the close of Carboniferous times and the com-
mencement of the conditions under which the New Red was formed.
Little wonder, when the length of this interval is taken into considera-
tion, that vast and important changes had been gradually brought about
in the meantime. In general terms, these were the extinction of most of
the older forms of life which characterized the foregoing period, and the
evidence of which ancient forms of life in these rocks led geologists to
refer to the groups as the Palasozoic group. Now that we know more
about these matters it is found desirable to subdivide the rocks in ques-
tion, and to refer to all, from the lowest Skiddaw Slate to the highest
Silurians, as the Proterozoic Group, and all the remainder, to the base of
the New Red, as the Deuterozoic. With the advent of the New Red
we find evidences of a commencement of the present order of beings,
whence the name Neozoic, first used by Edward Forbes, is now often
applied to all the rocks newer than the Carboniferous.
Regarding the Cumberland New Red, almost the only traces of
animal life are simply the footprints of a great variety of air-breathing
vertebrates, which waded in the shallows of the old lake, or wandered
amongst the desert sandhills. Evidence obtained outside of Cumberland
assures us of the fact that a large proportion of these animals were
reptilian, although amphibia may well have been present too. In the
Penrith Sandstone, as already mentioned, the old desert sandhills, now
hardened into stone, frequently show the spoors of the old kangaroo-like
reptiles of this period. A very interesting set of them was collected some
years ago by Mr. Geo. V. Smith, F.G.S., and his brother and sister, from
quarries near Edenhall. Other similar remains occur now and then on
slabs of the St. Bees Sandstone, from which rock, near Dumfries, the late
Sir William Jardine collected a fine series, which were figured in The
Ichnology of Annandale, and are now in the Edinburgh Museum of Science
and Art.
The vegetation of the New Red makes a nearer approach to that of
Australia than to existing European types at the present day, and is
distinctly of a much higher grade than the flora of the Carboniferous
Period.
(y) A remarkable and well-known sheet or sill of dolerite, the
Whin Sill, traverses the Carboniferous Rocks in the district immediately
to the north-east of the Pennine Fault. It formed the subject of an
important paper by Mr. Clough, of the Geological Survey, in which
37
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
that author called attention to the fact that where this rock occurred an
equivalent thickness of sedimentary rock was missing. Mr. Clough
explained this as due to the assimilation of the sedimentary rock by the
magma from which the Whin Sill was derived. Mr. Clough's views
were too advanced to meet with acceptance at the time, though the case
is different now.
The present author has put forward a modification of Mr. Clough's
view, in which it is suggested that the Whin Sill (as well as every other
eruptive rock) owes its origin to the slow solution of pre-existent rocks
by heated waters containing alkalies, and the subsequent crystallization
of the new compound when the temperature fell and the aqueous solvent
escaped.
Beyond the fact that the Whin Sill is of later date than some of
the disturbances which affect the Carboniferous rocks, its age is un-
known. But it may be contemporaneous with the volcanic rocks of New
Red age in Scotland.
VII. Rh^tic Beds. — Near the close of the New Red Period the
subsidence to which reference has been made was continued until it
eventually carried the surface nearer and nearer to the sea level ; con-
sequently the desert conditions came to an end and have not affected
Britain since. The change was a very gradual one, extending over a
period of very great length, as is shown by the vast and important
changes which took place on the continent in the meantime. In Britain
these changes gave rise to a set of rocks very similar in many respects to
those which were formed at a previous period, when the desert condi-
tions which prevailed when the Old Red Sandstone was formed were
gradually giving way before the humid conditions which characterized
Carboniferous times. The strata formed at the period now under notice
probably extended far and wide over western Europe. In Cumberland
they may be represented only by a small patch, which has survived
denudation, and occurs at Orton, west of Carlisle, it alone having been
left between Arran and the midland counties of England. The strata
usually consist, in their lower parts, of reddish and greenish clays with
cornstones, and in their upper parts of dark shales. The total thick-
ness in Britain nowhere much exceeds loo feet. On the Continent
strata of the same age range to several thousand feet, including impor-
tant masses of limestone, chiefly formed by the agency of plants (Algse).
VIII. Jurassic Rocks. — With the commencement of the subsidence
which ushered in the Rhastic period there set in a repetition of condi-
tions very similar to those which prevailed during Carboniferous times.
The Lias and Oolites everywhere succeed the New Red, so that where
the one occurs, or can be proved to have existed, there also was the
other. This is another way of stating the fact that not only the New
Red extended continuously across the whole of what is now Cumberland,
but that the whole district was formerly buried also beneath a great pile
of the Lias and the Oolite. Of this vast accumulation all that is left
now is a tiny patch at Orton, west of Carlisle, which is shown upon the
38
GEOLOGY
map accompanying this article. All that need be referred to here
regarding it is that it was a period of sufficient length to permit of
numerous and important changes in both the organic and the inorganic
worlds.
IX. Cretaceous Period. — In most other parts of the kingdom, and
mdeed over a much wider area still, a prolonged period of upheaval
followed the deposition of the Jurassic Rocks, and was accompanied and
followed by a considerable amount of waste. This denudation, in the
course of a very long time, ended by reducing the land surface 'over an
extensive area in western Europe into a very level plain. Then the
land once more sank beneath deep water, and the Cretaceous Rocks,
including the Chalk, were deposited upon this level floor over the whole
area. The present writer has long maintained that Cumberland partici-
pated in these changes, as much as other parts of Britain, and that the
whole district was formerly covered by these interesting rocks, which of
course have since entirely disappeared, as a consequence of upheaval and
denudation in times later still. The only vestiges left are the remnants
of the plain upon which the Cretaceous Rocks once lay, and also by
here and there a few chalk flints. But the plain is an important feature
in the scenery of the county.
For the vast and important biological and physical changes which
took place between the close of New Red times and the commence-
ment of the Tertiary Period it is here estimated that a length of
104,000,000 of years was required.
X. Post-Cretaceous Changes. — Few, if any, of the hills and
valleys of Cumberland date farther back than Post-Cretaceous times.
The history of their development will be more fully discussed presently.
But in the meantime we have to take note of the fact that a very long
interval of time (which the present writer would roughly estimate at
93,000,000 of years) separates the close of the Cretaceous Period
from our own day. Many and very important changes in physical
geography have taken place in the meantime, while in the organic world
many generations of plants and animals, quite different from any now
living, have come into being, and finally disappeared. The very ma-
terials out of which are formed large parts of great mountain masses,
like the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Andes, and the Himalayas, had not come
into existence in the earlier part of the period, and since it commenced
several oceanic areas and continents have more than once changed places.
(a) The principal episode with which we are most concerned
in reviewing this part of the historical geology of Cumberland is con-
nected with the vast and important development of volcanic action in
the north-western part of the United Kingdom, and which has left its
mark in Cumberland as well as in the districts around. Those events
may be summarized in a few lines : Long prior to the first rough
shaping of any of the great natural features now existing in Cumberland,
a series of volcanic vents, ranging in a northerly direction, broke out on
the western side of the British Isles. This may well have happened
■ 39
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
at an early period of a general upheaval, and may also have been con-
nected with the same cause to which that upheaval was due. There is
no reason for thinking that any of the volcanoes themselves were reared
on the area under notice ; but some of the fluid rock connected with
these volcanoes ate its way upward and outward from the principal foci,
and has consolidated in the form of dykes, and perhaps also in the form
of sills or sheets of eruptive rock in a few places.^ The later phases of
volcanic action coincided with a general disturbance and upheaval of the
greater part of Britain, and it was probably at or about this time that
the principal upland areas of Cumberland — the massifs of the Lake dis-
trict and Cross Fell — were elevated into nearly their present position.
It was during the same period that the great Outer Pennine Fault, and
some other lines of dislocation not so well known, received their last
great uplift. The effect in the case of the Outer Pennine Fault may
have been that Carboniferous Rocks surmounted by New Red were
elevated on the north-east side of the Fault, and brought into horizontal
contact with Cretaceous Rocks lying on New Red on the south-east.
There are many reasons for thinking that the volcanic episode was one
of great length, and that, during this prolonged period, the present river-
courses were established for the first time. This subject will be reverted
to further on.
At the close of the volcanic period, after the surface had been
shaped by prolonged exposure to the action of rain and rivers into some-
thing like its present form, hot springs arose through the faults and
other fissures, and from these heated waters were deposited the contents
of such mineral veins as those of the Alston Moor district. Possibly
the last filling of the mineral veins of the Caldbeck Fells, and of some
others in the Lake district, may date from this period, though there
are grounds for thinking that, as a whole, the latter veins are of older
date than those of Alston, and may have originated as far back as
New Red times. It should be noted that the valuable deposits of
Hasmatite which have made west Cumberland what it is, date also from
New Red times. All the known British deposits of Hsmatite date from
this period, and nearly all of them are due to the slow replacement of
pre-existent calcareous matter by ferric oxide. Such, too, is the date
and mode of origin of much of the manganese. The ores of lead, zinc
and copper appear to be in all cases deposits from hot springs, and
have arisen from below, instead of descending from above, as the Haema-
tite has.
(^) The behaviour of such dykes as the Cleveland Dyke, which is
a remarkable vertical sheet of basalt, which crosses from east Yorkshire,
through Teesdale, across the Eden at Armathwaite, and the Calda, or
Caldew, at Dalston, and the Solway west of Dumfries, suggests that when
this dyke was intruded some of the broadest features of Cumberland had
already began to assume a little of their present form. The behaviour
^ The exact age of the Whin Sill of Cumberland is not yet known : it may be of Tertiary
age.
40
f,
GEOLOGY
of the lead veins also is very similar in this respect. The upper limits of
both the dyke and the metalliferous veins roughly conform to the broad
outlines of the present surface, as if the downflow of cold waters from the
surface had checked the upward growth of the dyke, and had also cooled
the hot springs, so that both the dyke and the mineral vein terminated
upward at a lower level where there were depressions of the surface
than where there were elevations. It is remarkable that this does
not apply to the low ground of Edenside ; but the conformation of the
surface there may well have been of more recent formation, and the
depression may be due to the more rapid waste of the Cretaceous Rocks
there faulted in, as compared with the surrounding rocks, which are of a
more durable kind.
(c) It was probably during late Tertiary times that the last upheaval
along the Pennine Faults took place. Attention has more than once
before been directed to the fact that this zone of weakness is one along
which differential uplifts have been many times repeated — the earliest
movements probably dating back to the period following the close of
Silurian times.
(</) Taking the aggregate thickness of all the marine limestones that
have been formed since the close of the Cretaceous Period, and assuming
that these have been formed at the rate of one foot in 25,000 years, the
duration of the Tertiary Period down to the commencement of the
Niveal Period, or Age of Snow, may have been about 93,000,000
years.
XI. The Surface-Relief of Cumberland. — (a) It has often been
remarked that a right understanding of the various stages by which the
surface-relief of any district has been reached involves reference to the
whole of the later geological changes which that district has undergone.
It also requires, especially, that we should know much concerning the
developmental history of its rivers. This will be found to be true of
Cumberland more perhaps than of any other county in the kingdom.
The subject is, therefore, one that would need considerable space
for its full consideration ; but it may be possible to give a general idea
of the essential points even within the limits of a short article like the
present.
(i) The first principle to be borne in mind is that rivers of all
kinds and of all countries have themselves shaped the valleys in which
they flow. That is to say, no valleys, whether in Cumberland or else-
where, are due to the mechanical severance of the rocks of which their
valley-sides consist. Nor are they due to violent or sudden action of
any kind soever. None of them, again, are the work of the sea. They
are, one and all, simply depressions produced by the quiet and slow
removal of rock-material by the gentle and prolonged action of rain and
rivers. The chemical action set up by the acids in surface waters —
especially by the humus acids — and by the oxygen in the atmosphere,
have been amongst the most potent agents concerned ; and they have
had, as auxiliaries in the work, the effects of heat and cold, the
41
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
mechanical action of wind and rain, and a host of minor causes, each
taking its own share in the work of destroying the outer part of the
rock surface. The function of the rivers is mainly that of carriers of
the materials rotted from the surface of the land ; but they, too, exercise
a certain amount of erosive power, and co-operate with the allied forces
in the general work of lowering the surface. It is easy to reahze the
true function of a river if any one will observe the quantity of mud
being carried seawards by the Eden at CarUsle after heavy rain in the
upper part of the valley. All that mud being carried past by the river
was, not so long ago, solid rock in situ. It has been rotted by the
action of the weather, and now it has been stripped off that surface of
the land, which is therefore lowered by the amount represented by the
quantity held in suspension by the river. Small as that quantity may
appear, one has to remember that the process of stripping off the surface
of the rock is going on continually, and has been doing so, on the
surface of what was land for the time being, from the earliest period
known. It is solely to the prolonged continuance of this process that
the carving of the valleys is due.
The next general principle to be borne in mind is that no two
sorts of rock yield to the same kind of attack quite at the same rate.
Some appear capable of withstanding exposure for very long periods
without seeming to be any the worse, while others waste appreciably
in the course of a single lifetime. It is this differential rate of decay
which is the chief factor concerned in producing even some of the
larger physical features of the landscape. All rocks waste more or less ;
but the rock that wastes at the most rapid rate will be the first to be
lowered to sea level ; while the more durable rocks, whose surface is
being lowered at a slower rate, soon attain to a relatively higher level,
and are very much longer in wasting to the level of the sea than the
rock which when first exposed stood up with them.
Lastly, the reader must endeavour to realize that the processes to
which the configuration of a country is due are by no means rapid in
their operation ; but that, on the contrary, they act in general quietly,
gently, and usually at rates so slow as to be imperceptible. We have to
deal with effects that have been produced not within a century, or within
a thousand centuries, but which have required periods of time too long
for the human intellect to comprehend, and the immensity of whose
length can only be compared to the almost infinite intervals of space
with which the astronomer has to deal.
(c) Leaving general principles, we may now pass on to consider
their application to the district under notice : The reader of the fore-
going section of this article will have noted that there have been three
(or more) great piles of rock laid in succession one on another, upon
what one may term the ' foundation stones ' of the rocks of Cumber-
land. For the present we must dismiss the present configuration entirely
from our minds, and try to realize that there was at one time an extensive
plain, formed by the edges of a vast thickness of Cambrian, Ordovician
42
GEOLOGY
and Silurian rocks, which extended far and wide, and far beyond the
limits of the county. The rocks forming this great floor are very hard
and durable, taken as a whole. It was upon this nearly-level founda-
tion that (after many changes had arisen) the Upper Old Red Sandstone
and the Carboniferous Rocks were spread out, layer upon layer, to a
thickness of many thousands of feet. The general relation of the lower
portion of these rocks to the floor beneath at the stage under considera-
tion is illustrated by fig. i. In this the general lie of the old rocks
is shown, and the relationship of the granite masses, as well as the
hypothetical remains of the Caledonian Old Red, to the older sediments
is also indicated in a diagramatic way. As a whole the Carboniferous
Rocks are less durable than the rocks beneath. The former may waste,
say, five feet in a given time, during which the latter may waste
three.
Now it is important to remember that after the close of the
Carboniferous Period the whole pile, floor and all, was folded and
fractured. A great centre of upfolding coincided with the present Lake
district ; and the upward movement over that centre was carried to
such an extent that the old floor was there lifted to a higher level than
the top of the Carboniferous Rocks in the district to the east. More-
over the great zone of fracture and disturbance, known collectively as the
Pennine Faults, already in existence as a zone of weakness, gave way
once again, and the rocks on the north-east side of this zone were
elevated to a higher position than those on the side opposite. While
these movements were in progress denudation continually attacked the
rocks on the higher ground, so that after an exposure for a great length
of time the whole of the Carboniferous Rocks were worn away from
the summit of the dome, and much of them from the other zone of
elevation on the east side of the Pennine Faults.
It was upon an irregular surface formed out of the associated
Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous strata,
all more or less disturbed, that the New Red Rocks in their turn were
afterwards spread out. Fig. 2 may help to make this relationship
more clear, especially if it be studied in connection with fig. i.
The section is arranged to show that at least the higher members of the
New Red formerly extended right over what is now the Lake district,
as well as across the Pennine Faults, on to the area which now forms
the Cross Fell uplands.
To understand what ensued it may be as well if we agree to refer
to the two floors just mentioned by definite names. The older one we
may call ' the First Plain ' — for although in minor details the surface
was uneven, yet regarded broadly its nature was more or less as much
a plain as most submarine surfaces around the British Isles are now. For
the surface, more or less irregular, upon which the New Red was
deposited, we may also employ the term ' plain,' and refer to the floor
below the New Red as ' the Second Plain.'
After the close of the period which commenced with the formation
43
Ml
ijfiy ,
■>."
>»■ •',-«>
ssc^
fe
44
1 fi
s^
^V:
m
i;
^.
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
of the New Red and ended with the Neocomian (the Lower Neozoic
Period) there was a repetition of the folding and faulting along the same
tracts of Cumberland as before ; so that the Lake district dome, and
the country east of the Pennine Faults were again elevated, and the
lately-deposited strata removed from these areas just as was the case in
former times. The whole of Cumberland (and indeed the whole of
Britain and much of western Europe as well) underwent denudation
to such an extent that a Third Plain, much more uniform in character
than the other two, was gradually shaped. It is important to remember
that over the Lake district this plain was shaped out of the edges of
highly-inclined Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian rocks ; and that
around the Lake district and east of the Pennine Faults it was carved
mainly out of rocks of Carboniferous age, just as the Second Plain was,
while the remaining part consisted of New Red with some few outlying
remnants of the Jurassic Rocks which had escaped destruction. This
relationship is illustrated by fig. 3.
Now it was upon this very even Third Plain that the Cretaceous
and succeeding rocks were laid down.
[d) Finally, in Tertiary times, and perhaps all through the great
volcanic episode, there went on a renewal of the upheaval over the
same zone as before. Now it was upon this surface, formed mainly of
Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks, that the rivers of Cumberland first origin-
ated. There are many facts, which the present author has discussed
elsewhere, which seem to point to the conclusion that the chief Post-
Cretaceous uplands did not quite coincide with the areas which stand
highest now. The behaviour of many of the rivers of north-western
England seems to point to their original starting-point having lain at a
spot a short distance south of where the town of Appleby is now. At the
period under consideration the great depression of Edenside was covered
by some Post-Triassic rock, whose upper surface stood at a relatively
higher level than the rocks around. On the assumption that such was
the case, it is not difficult to explain the anomalous features presented by
the head waters of the Tees, the Tyne, the Lune, the Eden, the Swale
and others, if we assume that they all originally started seaward from an
ellipsoidal area composed of rocks softer than those which now appear
at the surface. Their courses seem to have been first established in this,
and then to have been modified by the unequal rate of lowering of the
various surfaces upon which their courses descended in subsequent times.
The idea involves many complications, and it may require much think-
ing over before it can be fully grasped. But a study of the diagram-
sections (figs. I to 4) may help to make the supposed sequence of events
clearer. The longer axis of the ellipsoidal area above referred to, or, in
other words, the primitive watershed of the Lake district, may have
coincided in position with Grasmere, High Street, Crosby Ravensworth,
Warcop and the head of Lunedale.
{e) The elevation of this ellipsoidal area into land commenced (it
is here assumed) in early Post-Cretaceous times, and the rivers began
46
GEOLOGY
to flow at first over rock of uniform composition at an early stage in
the process of elevation. As the land gently rose and a larger area was
exposed, the streams enlarged their channels, and probably maintained
their original courses without any important deviations all through the
period while the channels lay exclusively through the uppermost rock.
By degrees, as the upheaval slowly proceeded, and the waste of the
surface went on, the outer coating (if one may so express it) of the
dome, was worn through, and the head waters of the rivers flowed sea-
wards across rocks of quite a different kind from that in which their
channels commenced. For, assuming that the outer envelope consisted
of Cretaceous Rocks, it has been shown that these lay upon a floor
consisting of the denuded ends of various strata which comprised rocks
of the most diverse powers of resistance to subaerial denudation. These
embraced representatives of nearly the whole of the Pre-Cretaceous rocks
of Cumberland. In some few cases the effbrts of the river to maintain
its primitive course were more or less successful, and where that was
the case the streams made their way across every rock, durable or not
durable, that their channels happened to intersect. In many instances the
rivers continued to cope with and to overcome all the difficulties, one
after another, that arose in their way, and succeeded in maintaining
their original courses without much change. In all cases of that kind
the erosive power of the river in carving its own channel has exceeded
that of ordinary atmospheric waste in lowering the surface adjoining the
river channels. As a rule this is so ; in other words, a river usually
lowers the torrential part of its channel faster than subaerial erosion
lowers any adjoining part of its basin. In a few cases the two processes
go on side by side and at nearly equal rates. In some exceptional in-
stances a part of the basin of a river adjacent to its channel may be
lowered by subaerial erosion at a faster rate than the river lowers the
adjoining part of the channel itself. Sooner or later this results in a
diversion of the stream into the new course, which the river unavoidably
follows as far as the new channel offers the easiest route seawards.
This factor in the evolution of land surfaces has brought about
many important changes in the initial direction of rivers in Cumberland,
as elsewhere ; and is answerable for many of the inosculating valleys
which characterize so much of the scenery.
Another case of a nature analogous to the last, and which has led
to many important modifications of the river-courses in the Lake district,
may next be considered. It has frequently happened that a sheet of soft
rock laid down upon a floor of hard has been bent by earth movements
into a dome. If we think of the inner mass as the core of the dome, it
may help to simplify the description that follows. A river-course well
established in the envelope of softer rock, cuts its way after a time down
to the core. Where the difference in destructibility of the outer mantle
is much greater than that of the core (as where a mantle of soft Hme-
stones enwraps a core of tough greywacke), the river gradually tends to
wander away from its primary course, and as the extent of exposure of
47
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
the core increases, the river-course by degrees merges into line with the
junction between the inner and the outer rock. Indeed it may finally
take a very different course from what it had on first reaching the
enveloping rock. The Lune between Ravenstonedale and Tebay and
the upper waters of the Lowther affords good examples of these modifi-
cations. Both began to flow at a very much higher geological horizon,
and in rocks which have long since wasted entirely away. Both have
cut their way down into a complex mass of rocks whose weakest direc-
tions lie transverse to the original course of the stream. Hence the
present trunk stream of the Lune, which at one time rose on a tributary
of that river over the summit of the Howgill Fells and flowed westward,
just on the north side of the line of highest ground there, has gradually
followed the edge of the Mountain Limestone down hill, as the envelope
consisting of this rock has gradually wasted from the hard, dome-shaped
core of greywacke. This explains how it happens that the river flowing
westward through low ground on the north side of the axis of the Lake
district abruptly turns to the south at Tebay, and thence cuts its way
right across a mountain mass, consisting of some of the toughest rocks in
the kingdom, to the low ground beyond, and flows past Kirkby Lonsdale
to the sea.
As this example is typical, and its comprehension involves a reference
to the mode of attack of rivers in all cases of this kind, a brief explanation
of the process may be given here : River valleys are wide where the
waste by atmospheric agencies keeps ahead of the rate at which the river
cuts down its channel ; and they are narrow where the reverse is the
case. That is to say a river-channel is usually narrow where the stream
traverses hard rocks, and wide where it crosses soft. Now a river
flows at a slower rate through a wide channel than through one that is
narrow. The Eden for example quietly, almost lazily, eddies its way
seaward through the soft marls and the alluvium which form the meadow
land about Lazonby ; but when it arrives at Eden Lacy and finds its channel
narrowed to the hard rocky gorge formed by the Penrith Sandstone there,
it seems to wake up and to hurry onward at a rate very different from
what it had in the wide expanse formed by the softer rocks. From side
to side the river at this point is not more than two thirds as wide as it
was a mile above ; hence its swifter flow. Thus the power of running
water to transport stones, and therefore to wear its river-channel, is
proportional to the sixth power of its velocity. That is to say, water
flowing at a rate sufficient to roll a stone a quarter of an ounce in
weight, will, if its rate of flow is doubled, be able to drift a stone weighing
a pound, and so on in the same proportion. Where hard rocks form a
river-bed, and the channel therefore is narrower, the rate of flow of the
stream is increased, and the river exerts in consequence greater erosive
power, just at the point where that extra effort is most required if the
river is to maintain its course. In other words, where impediments are
placed in their way the streams rise to the occasion and put forth an
amount of energy sufficient to overcome the obstacle. The beautiful
48
GEOLOGY
gorge of the Eden, extending from Eden Lacy past Nunnery Walks and
Armathwaite, offers an excellent illustration of this principle ; and others
little inferior to this occur elsewhere in the county.
The same principle which enables a river to cut its way from soft rocks
across harder, on a small scale, is identical with that which has come into
action on the larger scale under consideration. All that is needed in the
initial stages is that the rock through which the river is cutting down to
the harder mass beneath shall remain long enough to establish the stream in
its new course, and that the rock on either side of the gradually-developing
ridge shall not waste at a faster rate than the river can keep pace with in
its work of excavating the gorge. It must be obvious that if the area
above the gorge should happen to waste at a more rapid pace than the
gorge is being excavated, there must presently come a time when the
river can no longer carry on that work, but, instead, must find egress to
the sea by another channel. In this case the river is severed in two ; the
middle of the gorge becomes the watershed of the lower half of the
original river, and after a time usually sends a small tributary to the
parent stream, which may eventually for a distance flow in a direction
diametrically opposite to that which it had at first.
{f) The somewhat complex and apparently theoretical section just
ended is inserted here with the object of explaining some very anomalous
features which characterize many of the valleys of Cumberland. Fore-
most amongst these features are the many so-called ' inosculating ' valleys
already referred to, and which occur in various parts of the district.
What is meant by that term is that there are often two streams flowing
in opposite directions in what is manifestly one and the same valley,
which therefore runs continuously across the present watershed. Nearly
all the main roads, and most of the railway routes traversing mountain
districts follow inosculating valleys. The pass at Dunmail Raise, which
is traversed yearly by thousands of tourists, may serve as an example.
Briefly, they may be explained as due to a gradual displacement of the
watershed, as the surface has been lowered and the river has encountered
rocks showing diff^erent combinations of durability from those in which
its course has been originally established. Some of the rivers of Cumber-
land may have been severed in this way at more than one place. The
Petteril, for example, probably originated near where Matterdale is now,
and flowed north-eastward to join the Eden west of the present course of
that river near Great Salkeld. But two sets of depressions have originated
across its original course, or, what comes to the same thing, two sets of
ridges have been developed at a rate faster than the erosive power of the
Petteril could keep pace with. As a consequence the upper half of the
Petteril has been diverted into one of these growing depressions and now
joins the Eamont below Ullswater. A new watershed has arisen in what
is now Greystoke Park, and the Petteril goes on in its original channel from
there to near Catterlen. Furthermore, with the continued waste of the
surface, the gradual evolution of the great ridge of Penrith Sandstone
forming Lazonby Fell has proceeded at a rate more rapid than the river
I 49 E
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
could keep pace with, and as a consequence the stream has turned into a
new channel, leaving its former course on Lazonby Fell as a simple de-
pression. In two addresses given before the Cumberland and Westmor-
land Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science, in 1880
and 1881,^ the present author fully discussed these and some allied
matters. The papers referred to contained the earliest attempts at dis-
cussing the origin of any features of the kind above briefly noticed.
The subject of the evolution of the river valleys is so intimately
connected with the evolution of the broader features of the scenery that
no account of the historical geology of the district would be complete
without some reference to it, and more especially so now that the sub-
ject in general is attracting so much attention in America and on the
Continent : furthermore, the evolution of the plains of Cumberland cannot
be rightly understood until after all the factors concerned in their history
have been considered, and the rivers are amongst the most important of
these factors.
(g) To the casual observer the broader geological features of Cumber-
land resolve themselves into (i) the coast-line, (2) two mountain areas
represented by the Lake district and the upland tract between Brampton
and Alston, (3) the Carlisle plain. Closer examination makes it evident
that other features will have to be separately considered.
The history of the coast-line may be told in a few words : The
North Channel, the Solway and the Irish Sea are different parts of what
was, before the Glacial Period, simply the basin of one great river.
With the submergence that followed the Glacial Period, the sea has been
admitted all over the area, and up the mouths of the tributary streams ; so
the Solway is merely a drowned river valley. Some modifications of this
earlier feature have arisen through a partial silting-up of the river mouth,
and through a trifling amount of waste of the coast-line by the action of
the sea. Minor details of change have also originated through the rises
of the land, and the consequent formation of raised beaches.
{&) The great Cumberland plain is a remnant, now much cut up,
of what was formerly a great dome, with its higher and central parts
coincident with the general summit-level of the Lake district. There
is no better way of grasping the plain-like character of these mountain
summits as a whole than to study any good relief model of the Lake
district, such as those exhibited in Keswick. The plain in question is
regarded by the writer of this article as simply a re-exposed part of the
very flat and even surface upon which some easily-wasted rocks, possibly
the Cretaceous rocks, formerly lay. Whatever the rock in question was, it
was certainly deposited in horizontal layers on a surface shaped out of the
upturned ends of rocks comprising representatives of all the strata older
than itself Subsequently this pile was locally upheaved so as to form a
low dome coincident with the area of the present Lake district. While
that upheaval was in progress there, a more abrupt upheaval commenced
along the north-east side of the great pre-existent zone of fracture, known
* See Trans. Cumb. and West. Assoc.y pt. xiv. p. 73, and pt. xiii. p. 89.
50
GEOLOGY
as the Outer Pennine Fault, which extends past the western foot of Cross
Fell north-westward, through Cumberland, towards Brampton. The
upward movement brought hard and durable rocks of many different ages
into contact with the softer rocks (the supposed Cretaceous Rocks). The
date of the main upheaval was probably coincident with the great vol-
canic episode, and probably also continued throughout nearly the whole
of that period.
In course of time the outer envelope disappeared from the uplands,
leaving vestiges of its former presence in the gently inclined surface which
the summit-level of the mountain areas evidently presents, from whatever
elevated position we may regard it. The softer envelope would disappear
latest in the parts where its base was nearest the sea level. Hence the
very obvious plain extending from the foot of the Cross Fell Escarpment
to Carlisle, thence northward gently rising to the Bewcastle Fells, and
westward to the Solway. This plain is referred to generally as the Third
Plain. The diagram-sections which accompany this chapter may serve
to explain its nature better than any description.
There are two other surfaces (or plains, as they might still be
termed) . The next older to the third plain is that upon which the New
Red once lay. It was never very even in form, or perhaps it would be more
correctly described as originally very uneven. But its re-exposure has
left features on the outskirts of the Lake district which cannot well be
mistaken. Lastly, there is the re-exposed surface upon which the Upper
Old Red and the Carboniferous rocks at one time lay. Like the other
two surfaces this has shared in all the disturbances that have affected the
rocks in Post-Carboniferous times ; but its re-exposure has given rise to
inclined surfaces on the outer margin of the Lake district which form
important elements in the surface - relief. These three ' plains ' or
re-exposed rock-floors, embrace between them the whole of the broader
surface-features of Cumberland, except the face of the Pennine Escarp-
ment and the line of the coast. In other words, the whole of Cumberland
consists of representatives of these three plains, more or less disturbed,
and variously combined with each other.
XII. Post-Pliocene Changes of Climate. — (a) One of the
most important episodes in the geology of Cumberland is undoubtedly
that connected with the long period of snow and ice which forms
the closing chapters in the history of the past. The surface-features
almost everywhere underwent considerable modification, lakes were ex-
cavated where only river valleys were before, corries were scooped out
of the mountain flanks, a vast and important series of glacial grooves
was formed, crags and other irregularities of the surface were rounded
off, the accumulated results of many thousands of years' weathering were
swept away, and, finally, nearly all the lowlands were covered with a
mantle of boulder clay and other deposits of glacial origin. Important
changes also took place in the elevation of the land whereby the form
of the coast- line was greatly modified. Finally, biological changes,
which have left their mark in many ways connected with the sequence
51
A HlbTORY OF CUMBERLAND
of events since the beginning of the historical period, were brought
about in connection with the episode about to be noticed.
During nearly all the various geological periods which have been
reviewed in the foregoing section, the climate of Cumberland does not
seem to have been at any time characterized by any conditions of ex-
ceptionally low temperature. It is true that evidence of glaciers is
to be found in the New Red breccias near Appleby ; but that probably
means no more than that on the uplands here and there might then be
formed a glacier, just as there are glaciers on the upland areas not far
removed from many desert tracts at the present day. The Cretaceous
Period, and probably much of the succeeding Tertiary Period also, may
well have been characterized by climatal conditions in which the
temperature was above rather than below the present average. In this
matter very much depends upon altitude above the sea, as well as upon
proximity to zones of warm and moist aerial currents.
{b) Near the close of the Tertiary Period, and long after the volcanic
eruptions had ceased, we have evidence supplied from other areas, that the
area now represented by Cumberland had been gradually elevated to
a considerable height above the level of the sea. At the period at
which this particular episode is supposed to have commenced, all the
present rivers of the district had attained something of their present form,
after the long and varied ancestral history of which an outline has been
given in the foregoing paragraphs. One may indeed say that under the
prolonged action of rain and river the country had by this time assumed
nearly the same general configuration that it has to-day.
After a time, the elevatory forces gained upon the destructive
forces which were then, as now, at work lowering the surface of the
land, and as a consequence its uplands rose to an elevation higher,
perhaps by nearly a thousand feet, than their present position. The whole
of north-western Europe participated in the movement, which appears
to have reached its maximum in Scandinavia. Partly as a consequence
of this elevation of the land, the average temperature fell at least a few
degrees below what it is now ; and the climatal conditions underwent
further modification, owing to the fact that, with the elevation, a great
tract of land west of Britain was raised above the sea level. As a con-
sequence, the eastern margin of the Atlantic was removed some two
hundred and fifty miles to the west of St. Bees' Head. There are many
reasons for believing the conjoined oceanic and aerial currents known as
the Gulf Stream had been in existence long prior to the period under
consideration, and that they must have remained in full operation
throughout the whole of the long period of snow. But with these
sources of heat removed to so much greater distance, the climatal conditions
became much less equable than they are now. Indeed, for many reasons,
it is probable that although Cumberland then received perhaps even
more heat from the sun than it does at present, just as the snow-clad sum-
mits of the Alps receive a sixth more sun heat than the valleys, yet, in
Cumberland then, as on the Alpine slopes now, the precipitation took
52
GEOLOGY
exclusively the form of snow. Perhaps it is as well to push the com-
parison farther, and to state that although the Glacial Period was one of
snow and ice, yet it was not necessarily a period of very low temperature,
any more so than characterizes the higher glacier regions of Switzerland
to-day.
As a consequence of the increased elevation there was land con-
nection with the continent on both the east and the south of Britain.
For what is now the North Sea was then a broad plain, through which
the Rhine flowed northward, receiving as it went all the drainage of
eastern Britain, and discharging it into the Atlantic, somewhere to the
north-east of Shetland. The depression now occupied by the English
Channel had already been shaped into much its present form as a river
valley, and with the elevation referred to it remained so. The same is
true of the Irish Sea ; and the rivers of Cumberland, joined with those of
the south of Scotland, united with the others that now discharge into
that area, and reached the Atlantic to the south-west of Ireland.
(f) The occurrence of wide stretches of dry land, where now
there is sea, had a most important effect in modifying the climate.
Indeed, taken in conjunction with the increased elevation, and with the
proximity of the mountain areas of southern Scandinavia and north-
western Scotland to the vast quantities of aqueous vapour drifted north-
eastward in connection with the Gulf Stream, the factor just mentioned
may have played an important part in the development of the peculiar
conditions which characterized this period. It may be as well to repeat
in this place that the Glacial Period was not so much a period of low
temperature, as one during which more snow fell during the year than
the summer's heat sufficed to melt. To bring about such conditions four
factors are required, (i) There must be an extensive area of ocean
where distillation by the heat of the sun goes on at a high rate. (2) The
products must be transferred from this area by the action of currents,
aqueous or aerial. (3) There must be an upland area in the path of these
currents, which acts as a refrigerator, and converts the aqueous vapour
into snow. (4) The local conditions must be such that more snow is
precipitated than is removed from the land. These conditions are quite
compatible with a comparatively mild climate, and do not by any
means require so low a temperature as is generally supposed to have
prevailed during the Glacial Period. Strictly speaking, it would be
more correct to refer to this period as the Niveal Period, seeing that its
essential characteristic was the widespread prevalence of snow.
Snow does not flow off the land like water does, hence, if only
a little more fell each year than was melted, it was bound sooner or
later to accumulate at the valley heads until it became compacted into
ice. In this state it must soon have begun to flow down the valleys
in the form of glaciers. It is as well to remember that the ice simply
took the place of river water, and moved, as rivers do, outward from
the main areas of precipitation, downhill and seawards.
There are good geological reasons for believing that this state of
53
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
things continued for many thousands of years ; the snowfall, however,
gradually increasing, and thereby chilling the air around, and perennial
snow covering an increasingly larger area on the uplands, fogs becoming
more and more prevalent, and less and less rain falling even in the
summer months. These various causes tending to lower the tempera-
ture produced cumulative effects.
Long prior to the time when the snow began to he all the year
round on the lowlands, Cumberland was still inhabited, especially during
the summer months, by many of the large mammalia of those days which
migrated thus far from the south-east in quest of the extensive feeding
grounds they required. With the great herbivorous beasts came also
some of the carnivora, amongst them the ancestor of the African lion,
whose shaggy mane and breast may be a vestige of the thick rough coat
of spotted fur which enabled him to fare well in a cold climate. With
these and other carnivorous animals it is not unlikely that savage man
may also have first visited these parts, and have already begun to use his
rough stone implements in contending with the other denizens of the
land for the possession of the hunting grounds.
{d) Slowly and gradually the snow spread to the lowlands. Glaciers
in the north-west of Scotland had already coalesced to such an extent as
to cover the whole country there. As time went on these conditions
began to prevail further south ; the areas first to be so affected being
those which are characterized by the heaviest rainfall at the present
day. Before the advancing ice the plants and animals not yet accus-
tomed to cold conditions had either to migrate southward or to suffer
extermination. As they disappeared, others of more boreal habits took
their place, and advanced southward in proportion as the land became
uninhabitable. So reindeer and arctic animals and plants eventually
migrated as far south as central France. It must be remembered that
these migrations were facilitated by the land connection that then existed
between Britain and the continent by way of what are now the North
Sea and the English Channel.
Eventually more snow fell even on the lowlands of Cumberland
than the summer's heat sufficed to melt, and then glacial conditions
may be said to have set in there, just as they had done long before in
the country to the north. The glaciers grew, then coalesced, and
eventually crept outward from their mountain birthplace to the low
ground beyond. These conditions must have remained for a very long
period, if we may judge by the effects produced upon the rock surfaces
and by the enormous quantities of rock material transported outward
from the mountain centres to the low ground beyond.
[e) In a county like Cumberland, in which so much interest centres
upon the lakes and the mountain features, the phase under consideration
is one of great importance. There can be no question whatever,
amongst field geologists at any rate, that all the lake basins of Cumberland
were carved out of the solid rock at this time by the long-continued
action of thick masses of glacier ice. There is really but little need to
54
GEOLOGY
add anything here to what Sir Andrew Ramsay has said on the subject
in general, or to what the late Rev. J. Clifton Ward has written in regard
to the glacial origin of the Cumberland and Westmorland lakes in
particular.* All of them are simply old river valleys deepened and
widened by the long-continued erosive action of glacier ice. The
slow and persistent grinding to which this erosion is due produced
most effect at the points where the motion of the bottom layers was at
its greatest and where the pressure was at its maximum. It may be as
well to bear in mind in this connection the important fact that ice
expands with a rise of temperature, and contracts with a fall, to a greater
extent than any other solid known. A thick mass of ice under cold
atmospheric conditions is warmer below in proportion to its depth, be-
cause it is not so much chilled by surface cold, and, at the same time, its
lower parts intercept much of the heat radiated outward from the earth.
That is to say, the base of the ice is warmer than its upper surface ; and,
being warmer, expands more, and therefore slowly creeps outward in the
direction of least resistance, which usually follows a parabolic curve
upwards from the sole of the ice and outwards from its source. As the
weight of a column of ice one thousand feet in thickness on a base of
a square foot is more than twenty-five tons, one can readily see that this
steady upward and outward creep of the bottom layers, charged as they
are with grit and rock fragments, must give rise in course of long periods
to erosive effects of considerable importance. The fact that ice is nearly
transparent to all the light rays and to most of the heat rays from the sun,
while the foreign matter within the ice is not, helps still further to raise
the temperature of the lower parts of the ice, and, by making them
expand most, propels them forward over the rocks.
It may be mentioned here that several other lakes than those now
existing as such formerly had a place in Cumberland and Westmorland.
There was a large one, now occupied by alluvium, between UUswater
and St. Ninian's Church on the Eamont. The lip of the rock basin
which contained that lake has been notched through by the river, and
now forms the picturesque gorge of Udford Crags adjoining Edenhall.
Another lake of larger size, also now silted up, once extended along the
Eden from Appleby to Eden Lacy. Here, again, the beautiful rocky
gorge and the rapids on the Eden at Eden Lacy are simply vestiges of
the lip of the rock basin that formerly held in the water of the Eden
and formed the lake in question, until the river notched the gorge deeper
and let the water out. There was a similar lake, also with a gorge below
it, at Kirkoswald. East of Keswick there was one at Threlkeld, of
which the former lip is represented by the picturesque gorge on the
Greta between that place and Keswick. Indeed it would be easy to
multiply examples, for they are to be found here and there all over the
county. All are simply enlargements of old river valleys, effected by
glacial erosion. All have been true rock basins, which have once held
lakes, and have been converted into meadow land by the double process
^ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, xxx. p. 96.
55
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
of the lowering of their outlets by the erosive action of the river, and
the carrying in of sediments at their upper ends.
During the phase of glacial action now under consideration, the
same cause which enlarged and deepened the river valleys also carved
great grooves upon the surface of the solid rock on the land. Some of
these grooves, even in Cumberland, are so large as almost to be entitled
to be called valleys. But as we advance further north into Scotland
these features increase in size and importance. Even around Kelso,
for example, the hill-shaded maps of the Ordnance Survey show them in
great force, sweeping with an undeviating course right across rocks of
the most diverse composition and age. Near Blairgowrie again, they are
even more striking ; while in connection with the Highland rocks they
reach even larger proportions still.
Another feature of some importance in the scenic geology of Cum-
berland is represented by the corries or cirques. These are usually
excavations on the hillsides, shaped like half a bowl or half a funnel.
Commonly they are characterized by a remarkable regularity of form,
quite unlike any features produced by the action of any subaerial causes.
Their origin has given rise to much difference of opinion. The present
writer, dealing in 1874 especially with those of the Lake district, attri-
buted their origin ^ to the effects of a slow rotatory movement or eddy of
the ice. There are some very fine examples of these in the valley of the
Calda, or Caldew, above Carrock Fell ; others equally fine, but much larger,
occur at Melmerby ; while there are few dales in the Lake district that
do not show some traces of them, usually near the upper part.
{f) Throughout the greater part of the Glacial Period the move-
ments of the Cumberland ice were seawards and mainly downhill. But
while the changes just referred to were in progress, the ice from Gallo-
way had coalesced with the general stream from the southern uplands
of Scotland, and had already begun to make a slow advance southwards
across the Solway — the ice from northern Cumberland extending with
equal slowness in the opposite direction. The result may be readily con-
ceived : the opposing streams, after a prolonged contest for mastery,
eventually became united, and began to send their surplus overflow east-
ward along the border counties. This is another way of stating the fact
that a great conjoined stream, formed of both Cumberland and Scottish
ice, once flowed over the watershed of the Eden and the Tyne, and hence
seawards by the Tyne valley. On the south of the zone where the
Cumberland and Scottish streams met end to end, the movement on the
low ground was mainly southward, and continued thence at least as far as
North Wales.
{g) Eventually, the heavy snowfall due to the condensation of the
aqueous vapour of the Gulf Stream by the uplands of the west of
Scotland, caused such an increase in the volume of the Scottish ice that
it overcame the resistance offered by part of the ice from Cumberland,
thereby bringing its movements around Carlisle to a standstill for a time,
^ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, xxxi. p. 99 ; Geol. Mag., ii. vol. ii. No. x. p. 486.
56
GEOLOGY
and, eventually, after ponding it back in Edenside, actually repelled it
with such force that it was obliged to flow in a direction diametrically
opposite to that which it had maintained for so long during the earlier
part of the Glacial Period. Hence much of the ice of the upper parts
of Edenside streamed over the Shap Fells southward by way of Kendal
and Lancaster ; while the chief overflow, ponded back at the head of the
valley, found its way in the direction of the North Sea by way of Stain-
moor and the lower half of the valley of the Tees. Judging by the
effects produced upon the rock surface, this overwhelming of Cumber-
land by ice of extraneous origin did not continue very long. The load-
ing of this part of the earth's crust by a mass of ice, which must have
considerably exceeded 2,000 feet in thickness (and farther north may
well have exceeded 4,000 feet) is believed by many to have eventually
wrought its own end. It is supposed that the weight of the vast load
of ice which had accumulated on the seaward margin of north-western
Europe, may have helped to bring about a slow depression of the earth's
crust. The mountain-tops were gradually lowered by the depression ;
rain fell and flowed off the land where previously the precipitation mainly
took the form of snow ; and, finally, the depression brought the sea more
and more inland. With the landward advance of the sea, those warmer
currents of both water and air, which constitute the so-called Gulf Stream,
extended their influence two hundred miles to the east of the former
limit. Hence, the supply of snow having ceased, the glaciers were cut
at their source ; whereupon the great confluent mass of ice, with all its
tributaries and feeders, each charged throughout with mud, sand, stones
and rock masses of various sizes, quietly melted away as it stood, and
without passing in reverse order through any of the successive stages by
which it reached its maximum.
{&) The glaciated and other materials within the ice (there was
probably little or none of the so-called ^moraine profonde' beneath) were
liberated, as the ice melted, in the form of a kind of sediment. The
boulder clay, and the beds of sand, gravel, peat, etc., associated with it,
and also the eskers, were formed on the spot, as the varied results of this
one operation of the melting of stony ice. (It may be mentioned here
that this explanation of the englacial origin of glacial deposits was first
put forward by the writer of this section in the year 1874, and is pub-
lished in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xxxi., and in
the Geological Magazine for November of that year.)
The importance of these glacial deposits in connection with Cum-
berland can hardly be overrated, as they form the subsoil of nearly the
whole of the cultivated ground, as well as much of the land under pasture.
(/) The relation of the present flora of Cumberland (and, to a
certain extent, that of the fauna also) to its parent sources, is largely of
a geological nature, and is intimately connected with the changes of
climate that arose during the Post-Pliocene Period. As already men-
tioned, Cumberland was formerly connected with Ireland on the west,
while on the east a land connection with western Europe also existed
57
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
across what is now the North Sea. Moreover, southern Britain was, in
like manner, connected with France and with the coast of Spain. By
these several routes most of the existing plants had migrated to Cumber-
land at an early period. Its flora, before the Age of Snow, therefore
consisted of a main stock nearly identical, on the whole, with that of
central Europe, with an admixture of such Scandinavian, Lusitanian and
Armorican forms of plant life as could adapt themselves to the conditions
then existing. With the gradual increase of the area covered with snow,
the spreading of each succeeding generation of plants was necessarily
confined to the south and the south-west. So the process continued —
those plants which could least tolerate the cold forming the van of the
emigrants, and those best adapted to live near to snow bringing up the
rear, rank behind rank — until, in the end, the main body of the Cumber-
land assemblage of plants had made their way into France.
With the waning of the Age of Snow, the reverse process took
place. Scandinavian and Arctic plants remigrated in the front rank as
the ground became clear of snow ; the Germanic plants, forming the
main body as before, closely followed the advanced party, and, finally,
the Pyrenean and Armorican contingents slowly brought up the rear. At
present the Germanic main body, after long contending for the possession
of the low ground of Cumberland with their Scandinavian predecessors,
have gradually won position after position on the slopes of the fells, and
are on their way to taking almost entire possession of even the highest
fell tops.
(y) While these changes were going on in the plant life of Cum-
berland, various animals, including man, finding new feeding and hunt-
ing grounds as yet unoccupied, gradually retook possession of the land.
In some respects the animal immigrants differed from the plants —
inasmuch as the men came of a different stock from their predecessors,
and brought with them evidence of a much more advanced state ojf
civilization. The other animals which repeopled the land were simply
the ancestors of the animals that are living here now, plus the brown
bear, wolf, wild-boar and a few others, which have disappeared with the
extension of man's domain in Britain. Neolithic man himself, as time
went on, had to give way before the advance of men more civilized still,
with whose advent commences the dawn of history, as commonly under-
stood.
(k) Long after man re-established himself here, minor changes
continued in progress. The land has risen by fits and starts, with
lengthy pauses between each move. It has now been elevated to about
one hundred and fifty feet higher than its level when the ice first dis-
appeared and Neolithic man first came. A few tiny glaciers gathered in
the heart of some of the mountain areas during the period under con-
sideration, and have left miniature moraine heaps here and there as evidence
of their former existence. The lakes which were formed when the ice
first melted away are gradually becoming shallower, through the quan-
tity of material transported into them by rivers ; indeed, a few which
58
GEOLOGY
lay in the path of rivers such as the Eden, which carry down much
sediment, have passed into the condition of meadow land. Other lakes,
such as the once-continuous Derwent-Bassenthwaite Water, Buttermere-
Crummock Water, and others, are being silted up in the middle by the
material carried in by lateral streams ; and all of them are reminding us
that lakes are merely local and temporary conditions of rivers, and that
they are all destined, sooner or later, to gradually silt up into dry land.
Some few of the tarns have also shallowed-up, or have passed into moor-
land through the intermediate stage of a peat-bog.
The great deposits of hill-peat, containing remains of trees, at alti-
tudes where no trees could be got to grow now, tell us of climatal
conditions a few thousand years ago, long after the advent of Neolithic
man, which must have been more genial than what we now experience.
Since the commencement of this period, wind, rain and frost,
drought and wet, heat and cold, have all been incessantly at work modi-
fying the character of the surface of Cumberland, and reducing more
and more of it from the state in which it was left at the close of the
Glacial Period to a condition suitable for the needs of man.
XIII. The Relation between the Geological Structure of
Cumberland and the Boundaries of the Parishes. — In the South
of England a very obvious relation can be made out between the distri-
bution of the various kinds of soils and the larger divisions of the
counties. This is especially the case in the Weald, as the late Mr.
Topley has shown. Evidently, the earlier settlers, on taking possession of
the land, agreed amongst themselves so to portion out that district that
each community should have a due share of every type of land to be
found there. The division of the district was so arranged that, along
with the share of pasture and arable land allotted to each, there should
also be a due share of riparian land, together with a like proportion of
both woodland and moorland. In the Weald, the geological structure
of the district was eminently favourable for such an arrangement, as the
different types of rock upon which, in this case, the nature of the soil
mainly depends, are naturally arranged over the whole ellipsoidal area,
zone within zone, each zone comparatively narrow in one direction, but
forming a continuous band in a direction at right angles to that. This
arrangement of the strata and its present bearing will be easily understood
on reference to any good geological map.
To carry out this principle of allotment to its fullest effect three con-
ditions appear to be necessary, (i) There must be a definite geographical
relationship between the distribution of the geological formations and the
superficial deposits from which the various surface soils are derived.
(2) A uniform arrangement of the rocks must prevail throughout the
whole district. (3) The primary apportioning of the land must be
wholly in the hands of one united people, with a common government
and with common needs, and with that disposition to work together for
the common good which is requisite for the welfare of both the village
communities and the larger bodies into which these communities are to
59
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
be united. It is only in the case of an agricultural people, with com-
munistic habits, who enter at once into full and undisputed possession of
the land, that any such division on the lines followed in the Weald can
be possible.
In Cumberland, all the factors were different. The soils, instead of
being related in composition to the underlying rock as they are in the
Weald, are derived, in the great majority of cases, direct from the mantle
of glacial deposits. These are spread far and wide over all the lowlands
and the slopes of most of the hill-sides, and they usually bear only a remote
relation in composition to that of the rocks upon which they lie. Hence,
almost no definite geographical relationship subsists between the different
kinds of superficial deposits in one part as compared with another.
Furthermore, even where the soil is thin, and solid rock does protrude at
the surface, it is exceptional to find rock of the same kind extending far
enough to impart any definite agricultural type to the soil throughout
any but the fell lands ^ of a Cumberland parish. For this reason, even
the best geological maps of Cumberland afford but little information
regarding the value of the land from an agricultural point of view. In
the Weald the case is far otherwise, as already mentioned. The only
part of Cumberland where even an approach is made to the type of
parish boundary found in the Weald, is along the strip of the county
lying to the north-east side of the Eden. But even in that case, the
neat and definite coincidence observable between the geological structure
and the parish boundaries in the southern area can hardly be said to
exist.
The third factor, whose discussion comes perhaps more within the
province of the historian, relates to the ethnology of the earlier settlers
in the district. Taking it for granted that these earlier peoples were
Celtic, it may be safely assumed that they were but little disposed to
apply themselves wholly to agricultural operations. With them it would
be a matter of but little moment whether the soil upon which they lived was
suited, or was not suited, for the growth of any particular kind of crop.
If fishing and hunting were to be had, and sufficient rough pasture could
easily be found for their cattle, their needs were supplied. Then, again,
continual conflicts with their neighbours — inevitable under the circum-
stances — were hardly conducive to uniformity of land-tenure over any
large area. So their parish boundaries were determined by a variety of
circumstances.
If we are right in supposing that the Anglian and other Teutonic
settlers in Cumberland gradually supplanted the Celtic aborigines, instead
of taking possession of the land all at once, we can easily understand how
they took over the land with its older boundaries much as they found
them, and afterwards had but small need to modify those boundaries to
any important extent.
^ It may be remarked here that the word ' fell,' in the north of England, is not synony-
mous with ' hill ' ; the word simply means land as yet unenclosed, and is exactly synonymous
with the Norman word ' forest.*
60
GEOLOGY
To put this into a briefer form, we may say that the parish boun-
daries of Cumberland were laid out chiefly by a nation of hunters, and
not by an agricultural people ; and that we have kept them since very
much in the form in which they passed into the hands of the first
Teutonic settlers.
XIV. The Minerals of Cumberland. — There would have been
some advantages in treating Cumberland Minerals under the various geo-
logical formations to which they belong ; but as this plan would fail to
bring them, as a whole, clearly under the eye, they are given separately here.
They may be grouped (i) in accordance with the nature of their
bases ; (2) according to their chemical composition considered in connec-
tion with their crystalline form ; (3) on an economic basis ; or (4) with
reference to their mode of origin. Perhaps the last of these, in an article
dealing mainly with the geology of Cumberland, may be regarded as the
most suitable for the purpose. The customary order of treatment is as
follows : —
The original Minerals of Eruptive Rocks may be taken first. These
include Quartz and the Felspars, of which in Cumberland, Orthoclase,
Albite, Oligoclase and Labradorite are the chief The first three felspars
are mainly confined to the acid eruptive rocks, and the last one is the
usual felspar of basalts, dolerites, and of most andesites. Hornblende oc-
curs as an original constituent of most of the granites and the rocks allied
thereto, though never in any large proportion. It also forms one of the
minerals of the andesites. Augite (or rather Pyroxene in one or other
of its monosymmetric forms) is found in all the dolerites and basalts, and
also in the andesite lavas. It also occurs sparingly in some of the
aplite veins associated with the granitic rocks. The orthorhombic
Pyroxenes are represented in a few basic and sub-basic eruptive rocks.
The commonest mica is Biotite, which is an original constituent of nearly
all the granites and the rocks allied to them, and also of the Mica traps.
It probably occurred originally in many of the andesites.
Mucovite, as an original constituent, is by no means of common
occurrence. One of its chief sources being a remarkable microgranite,
which occurs in the Ordovician rocks near Melmerby and at other places
along the foot of the Cross Fell Escarpment.
With these, the more important of the original constituents of the
eruptive rocks, there also occur Ilmenite, Magnetite, Pyrites, Pyrrho-
tite. Molybdenite, Apatite, Sphene and a few other minerals, amongst
which may perhaps be included. Zircon and Orthite.
Contact-metamorphism has developed a very interesting set of
minerals, which, as might be expected, vary with the nature of the rock
in which they occur. In rocks of argillaceous composition, the best
known mineral of these is Chiastolite (a form of Andalusite), which
occurs chiefly in the altered Skiddaw Slates in the zones around or over
the granite masses. Where these Skiddaw Slates assume more the nature
of sandstones, the chief mineral developed, especially in close contiguity
to the eruptive rock, is Biotite.
61
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Of the very interesting suite of minerals found as a result of the
contact-metamorphism of limestones, such as Phlogopite, Diopside,
Tremotite, Wollastonite, Garnet, Idocrase, Sphene, Graphite, and Pyr-
rholite,no good examples have yet been detected actually in Cumberland,
although they occur within a short distance of the county boundary.
Contact-metamorphism has produced marked effect upon the vol-
canic rocks, as already mentioned, and has given rise to some interesting
minerals. Garnets occur here and there under these circumstances,
chiefly in tuffs which had undergone a certain amount of decomposition
prior to the intrusion of the eruptive masses with which the meta-
morphism is associated. Epidote is a common alteration-product of
rocks with this history. In many cases in Cumberland it may represent
one of the 'Green Earths' (Celedonite, Delessite, Saponite, etc.), which
were originally derived from some ferro-magnesian minerals in the rocks
affected, chiefly by the action of percolating water derived from the sur-
face. These ' Green Earths ' are very prone to change into Epidote
when the rocks containing them have been subjected to the factors which
have produced contact-metamorphism. In a few cases Biotite, Horn-
blende, and some other minerals, have been produced in the same
way. In the case of Agates, which have been formed in the vapour-
cavities of the eruptive rocks by the agency of underground waters, the
Chalcedony has passed into the crystalline condition, and has now become
Quartz. This is, perhaps, one of the reasons why normal agates are so
rarely found in Cumberland.
In some instances of extreme contact-metamorphism of the Cumber-
land volcanic rocks the determining factors have probably been con-
nected with the uprise of heated alkaline waters, which have operated
upon the rocks in question before they have lost their alkalies through
prolonged exposure to surface agencies. The rocks belonging to this
category are chiefly confined to the heart of the older volcanic rocks.
It is possible that some of the anomalies presented by the rocks and
minerals of Carrock Fell, which have formed the subject of an important
memoir by Messrs. Harker and Marr, may be explicable in this way.
Mr. Ward regarded this complex as a case of old lavas altered in situ ;
and although this view has recently been questioned, there is still much
to be said in its favour. The present writer is disposed to regard the
minerals composing the complex in question as due to the influence of
heated waters containing alkaline matters, which have risen through an
older set of lavas and tuffs at an early period in their history, and before
the volcanic rocks had lost any of their essential constituents by weather-
ing. The granophyric rock associated with these altered lavas, may, on
this view of its origin, be regarded as one in which an old basic or sub-
basic mass has been softened, and subsequently recrystallized, mainly
through the local operation of heated alkaline waters, which have
imported into the rock a higher percentage of both silica and the alkalies.
The intimate association of granophyric rocks and gabbros, here and else-
where, can thus be readily enough explained. The constituent minerals
62
GEOLOGY
of the Carrock Fell Rock are therefore here treated as partly of meta-
morphic origin.
There is a large class of other minerals occurring in Cumberland
which are due to another cause. These embrace most (but not all) of
the original contents of mineral veins. Quartz veins, so abundant amongst
the older rocks of Cumberland, are here assumed to be due to the slow
dissolution of the rock by heated alkaline waters, and by the equally slow
deposition of silica in the place of the material removed. In a few cases
it may possibly be true that the quartz fills a pre-existent fissure or cavity ;
but the evidence that such has been the case has not yet been satisfactorily
made out. In the case of the great quartz vein known as the ' Great
Sulphur Vein ' of the Alston district, the evidence of the quartz having
replaced limestone is clear enough. Curiously enough in this case rocks
other than those that are calcareous are left unaffected. Other mineral
veins are here regarded as due to successive deposits of mineral matters
originally held in solution in hot springs, from which the various sub-
stances have been left at the horizon where the temperature of the walls
of the veins coincided with the depositing temperature of the particular
substance in solution. To this category belong most of the Galena, Chal-
copyrite. Blende, Mispickel, Barytes, Fluor and some few other minerals
associated with them, such as some of the rarer ores of the Caldbeck
Fells. Even the Graphite of Borrowdale may be due to this cause. It
may be an ultimate product of what was formerly some metallic carbide.
All of these minerals just mentioned are here regarded as hypogenic in
origin. There is another class of substances occurring in the mineral
veins of Cumberland which are due to the downward percolation of cold
surface-water, which usually contains Carbonic Acid or some of the
organic acids allied thereto. In referring to the origin of these the cor-
relative term epigenic is used. These surface-waters give rise to a series
of complex changes, by which the sulphides are converted into carbonates,
sulphates, mixed carbonates and sulphates, phosphates, etc. The varied
contents of the celebrated mineral veins of the Caldbeck Fells, and other
areas near Keswick, as well as those of the almost equally celebrated
mineral veins of the Alston district, are largely due to this ' ebbing ' of
the original contents of the veins. Most Calcite veins are due to the
same cause.
To yet another series of changes of a geological nature are the New
Red minerals due : Rock Salt, Gypsum and Anhydrite, Dolomite, Chaly-
bite, Hsematite, and some of the ores of Manganese. The origin of these
has already been noted in connection with the Red Rocks themselves.
It may again be mentioned here that all the Haematite deposits of
Cumberland are replacement products of some form of calcareous matter,
which is usually either Calcite or Dolomite. This fact has long been
known to the officers of the Geological Survey ; but it is mainly to the
researches of Mr. J. D. Kendall that the public are indebted for their
chief knowledge of the facts connected with the geognostic relations of
Hematite. It may be remarked, however, that the presence of pebbles
63
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
of Hasmatite in the New Red Breccias — a very common occurrence — is
due to the selective replacement of some calcareous matter in the pebbles.
Hence the presence of these Haematite pebbles does not imply that the
mineral in question is older than the New Red, as seems commonly to be
supposed. Some Manganese ores occur not uncommonly in association
with Haematite ; and it is possible that some of the west Cumberland
' soft ore ' may consist of the bright-red form of Goethite, which goes
by the name of Rubinglimmer.
Lastly, there are a few minerals whose present character is due more
directly to surface agencies, such as oxidation, and the direct influence of
water. None of these call for any special remark.
For fuller details regarding localities, etc., the reader is referred to
the author's paper on ' The Minerals of Cumberland and Westmorland,'
in the Trans. Gumb. & West. Assoc, vols. vii. loi, viii. 189, ix. 175.
64
CLIMATE
SITUATED as Cumberland is at the extreme north-west angle of
the map of England, it is usually assumed that the temperature,
particularly during the winter, must necessarily be very severe.
In particular, the mountain valleys are commonly supposed to be
intensely cold at that season, but the thermometer, far from countenanc-
ing this opinion, shows that the inhabitants enjoy a milder climate than
those who reside in the open country. In winter, for instance, the mean
of the night temperature is several degrees higher than at Cockermouth,
Wigton, or Carlisle, in the open plain, where the frost is generally more
severe. The indications of the thermometer are in accordance with my
own observations during a residence of twenty years in the very centre of
the Lake district where it was not unusual to find the roads over the open
commons frozen quite hard, when they were found to be soft and clammy
in the valleys among the hills. The late J. F. Miller, F.R.S., in the
Philosophical Transactions, has the following remarks bearing on this ques-
tion : ' The mean temperature of the winter months at Chiswick in
Middlesex is nearly the same as in the Lake district, whilst a much
greater extreme of cold is frequently felt there than in the north. In the
neighbourhood of the metropolis the thermometer sometimes indicates a
degree^ of cold almost unknown in these districts. Thus on the night
between the nth and 12th of February, 1847, the temperature at
Greenwich fell to 6°, at Chiswick to 4°, and at Uckfield in Sussex to
1°, when at Seathwaite in Borrowdale the minimum was 24*5°, and the
minimum for the month 20°.'
Except in the Alston district and part of the valley of the South
Tyne river, which has its sources in the eastward slopes of the Pennines,
the whole county of Cumberland slopes towards the south and west, and
this exposure constitutes another factor in modifying the severity of its
climate. During the winter season a very large amount of snow often
occurs alike on the Pennine range and the more lofty peaks of the
Cumbrian group, where it frequently remains until the advent of spring ;
but in near proximity to the coast the snowfall is inconsiderable in
quantity and mostly is quickly dissolved.
The rainfall among the hills towards the south of the county is
frequently excessive and as Mr. J. G. Symonds, who for many years
published an account of British rainfall, has remarked, 'There is no
doubt that the Lake district is one of excessive rain, there being some
parts of it which have seven times as much as London ; but if not, where
would be the lakes, or to my mind the still more charming tarns ? Aira
I 65 F
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Force would degenerate to a " dropping well," and many beauties of the
district would vanish entirely.' These lakes and tarns fulfil another
important and useful purpose in serving as catchment basins or natural
reservoirs for the immense quantities of rain water which the river beds
would be otherwise unable to contain. Away from the hills and in the
plains of Cumberland, the rainfall may be set down as normal. Thus I
have before me through the courtesy of R. A. Allison, Esq., of Scaleby
Hall, about six miles north of Carlisle, a statement of the rainfall at that
place extending over a period of eleven years from 1889 to 1900. In
the year 1889 the amount of rain was as low as 29*7 inches ; in 1891,
36*9 inches ; and the average for the whole period of eleven years, 33-3
inches. For purposes of comparison I subjoin the following table of
mean annual averages, viz. : —
Inches Inches
The Stye, Borrowdale 165 Gowbarrow Park, Ullswater ... 72
Seathwaite 140 Esk Hause 72
Sprinkling Tarn 121 Scawfell Pike 64
Styehead Tarn no Keswick 59
Stonethwaite 107 Watermillock, Ullswater . . . . 55
Wythburn, Thirlmere 90 Mirehouse, Bassenthwaite .... 50
Wastdale Head 88 Penrith ' 38
Watendlath 82 Scaleby Hall, Carlisle * 33
Matterdale Common 80
REMARKS ON THE HELM WIND
Helm Wind is a local name of uncertain derivation (but supposed
to be so called from the cloud which, like a cap or helmet, covers the
top of the mountain) applied to a very violent wind blowing from some
eastern point of the compass, but mostly due east, at the foot of the
mountains known by the name of the Cross Fell range, and confined both
in length and breadth to the space contained between the Helm and
Helm Bar, hereafter described.
For a better understanding of this phenomenon, it may be necessary
first to point out the peculiar situation of the neighbourhood where it
occurs.
The counties of Cumberland and Westmorland are bounded on
their eastern side by a chain of mountains, separately known by different
names along the range, but collectively called the Cross Fell range, some-
times the Pennine chain, from their Roman name Alpes Penini. The
general direction is from north-west by north to south-east by south, and
the northern extremity is at Talkin and Tindale Fells, not far from which
the railway from Carlisle to Newcastle crosses to the east, the highest
point of which is rather more than 400 feet above the level of the sea.
Tindale Fell rises abruptly to a considerable height, Talkin Fell more
gradually, and the hills rise by degrees in the above-named direction
1 The same rainfall as at Exeter, and slightly in excess of that recorded for Birmingham and
Aberdeen, i.e. 3 1 inches.
66
Fic. 1.
CLIMATE
towards the summit ot Cross Fell, which is 2,930 feet above the sea ;
southward of this the range continues till it joins Stainmoor ; in this
direction there is no great depression as at the north. The ascent on
the eastern slope is much more gradual than on the west, where it is
sudden, with few or no spurs or outliers, except a few conical hills near
Dufton in Westmorland, called Pikes.
The annexed imaginary section (fig. i) will perhaps assist in giving
an idea of the rise on the different
sides. The horizontal distance of
the summit from the plain may
be about 2,700 yards ; at five
miles from the base on the west
is the river Eden, running nearly
parallel to the mountain ; on the
east of the summit range is the bed of the river South Tyne, the bridge
over which at Alston is 300 feet higher than the village of Melmerby
on the west.
Along the summit of this chain of mountains, and extending from
three or four to sixteen or eighteen miles each way, north and south
from the highest point, there
is often seen a large, long
roll of clouds, the westerly
front clearly defined and quite
separated from any other cloud
on that side ; it is at times
poised as it were above the
mountain, sometimes resting
on its top, but most frequently descends a considerable way down its
side ; this is called the Helm.
In opposition to this and at a variable distance towards the west
is another cloud with its eastern edge as clearly defined as the Helm,
and at the same elevation ; this is called the Bar, or Bur. The space
between the Helm and the Bar
is the limit of the wind.
The distance between the
Helm and the Bar varies as the
Bar advances or recedes from
the Helm ; this is sometimes
not more than half a mile,
sometimes three or four miles ;
occasionally the Bar seems to
coincide with the western horizon, or it disperses and there is no Bar,
and then there is a general east wind extending over all the country
westward.
However violent the wind may be between the Helm and the
Bar the violence ends there, as on the west side of the Bar there
is either no wind at all, or it blows in the contrary direction or from
67
Fig. 2.
N
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
various points in strong sudden gusts, but it would appear that the
general direction of the wind is not changed ; when the Bar advances
so far as to reach the Helm the wind ceases. Neither the Helm nor the
Bar forms separate or detached clouds, but each may rather be said to
be the bold, clearly-defined front of a large body of clouds extending
eastward behind the Helm and westward from the Bar.
The open space between the Helm and the Bar varies from eight
or ten to thirty or forty miles in length, and from half a mile to four or
six miles in breadth ; it is of an elliptical form, as the Helm and Bar
are united at the ends.
A representation of the Helm, Bar and space between may be
made by opening the forefinger and thumb of each hand and placing
their tips to each other ; the thumbs will then represent the Helm
on the top of the fell, the forefingers the Bar, and the open space
between the variable limit of the wind.
The wind is very irregular, but most frequent from the end of
September to May ; it rarely occurs in the summer months.^
The villages of Milburn, Kirkland, Ousby, Melmerby and Gam-
blesby are most subject to it ; the more distant from the highest point
the less it is felt ; it seldom occurs at Castle Carrock, and is known only
by name at Talkin. Sometimes when the atmosphere is quite settled,
hardly a cloud to be seen and not a breath of wind stirring, a small
cloud appears on the summit, and extends itself to the north and south ;
the Helm is then said to be on, and in a few moments the wind is
blowing so violently as to break down trees, overthrow stacks, occasion-
ally blow a person from his horse, or overturn a horse and cart. When
the wind blows the Helm seems violently agitated, but on ascending the
fell and entering it, there is not much wind. Sometimes a Helm forms
and goes off without a wind, and there are easterly winds without a
Helm. The open space is clear of clouds, with the exception of small
pieces breaking off now and then from the Helm, and disappearing or
being driven rapidly over to the Bar ; but through this open space is
often seen a higher stratum of clouds quite at rest. Within the space
described, the wind blows continually ; it has been known to do so for
nine days together, the Bar advancing or receding to different distances.
When heard or felt for the first time it does not seem so very extra-
ordinary, but when heard or felt for days together it gives a strong
impression of sublimity. Its sound is peculiar, and when once known
is easily distinguished from that of ordinary winds ; it cannot be heard
more than three or four miles, but when in the wind or near it, it has
been compared to the noise made by the sea in a violent tempest.
1 The above information has been chiefly obtained from a paper written in 1838 and read at the
meeting of the British Association at Newcastle-on-Tyne in the same year. The Rev. Jno. Watson,
the writer, was many years vicar of Cumrew, under Crossfell, and was well known to me in my earlier
years. There is occasionally a slight helm on the Westmorland side of UUswater. Kidsty Pike and
High Street form the summit, and the surrounding conditions are quite analogous to those mentioned
by Mr. Watson. I have witnessed it frequently during seventeen years' residence on the Cumberland
side of the lake. — W. H.
68
CLIMATE
Its first effect on the spirits is exhilarating, and it gives a kind of
buoyancy to the body. The country subject to it is very healthy, but it
does great injury to vegetation, by beating the grain, grass and leaves
of trees till quite black.
On the eastern side of the mountain they have no knowledge when
the Helm wind is blowing violently on the west ; and people on the fell,
when a mist comes on, do not know that there is a wind till they descend
the western side.*
It was long supposed that this wind was peculiar to this country,
but it now appears that there are similar phenomena in different places.
Sir J. Herschel said that he found one at the Cape ; the cloud called
the Tablecloth agreed with the Helm, and he observed the Bar at a
considerable distance ; the air rushed down the side of the mountain,
and being opposed by a contrary column was reflected and formed the
Bar. Professor Stavely had noticed one of the same kind near Belfast,
and Professor Buche of Philadelphia, when passing the Alps, observed
the like appearance.
^ The origin of the Helm Wind was discussed before the Cumberland and Westmorland Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science by the editor of the Association's Transactions, Mr. Goodchild (see
Trans. Cumberland and Westmorland Assoc. No. xiv. [i888], p. 43).
69
PALiEONTOLOGY
SO far as the fossil remains of vertebrated animals are concerned,
Cumberland may be said to have practically no history. The
absence of such fossils is to a great extent attributable to two
causes. In the first place a very large proportion of the rocks
of the county belong to periods when vertebrate life was either absent or
but feebly represented. In addition to this, as mentioned in the chapter
on Geology, the Devonian rocks of Cumberland are unfossiliferous ;
while no vertebrate remains appear to have been recorded from the
Carboniferous deposits within the limits of the county, although in many
other districts these yield more or less numerous teeth and other remains
of fishes. In the second place the whole of the surface of the county
appears to have been completely enveloped in ice during the Glacial
epoch, when it would have been extremely unsuitable for the presence of
a large fauna, while there would also have been but a poor chance for
the remains of such as did exist to have been preserved.
So far as the writer can ascertain, the only fossil remains of verte-
brates that have been recorded as occurring in the county are those of a
few mammals obtained during the excavation of the new docks at Silloth.
These were first described by an anonymous writer,^ who recorded the
antler of a red deer {Cervus elaphus), the humerus, or upper bone of the
fore-leg, of the aurochs, or extinct wild ox {Bos taurus primigenius), and
a tail-vertebra of a species of fin- whale {Balanopterd) . Subsequently
Mr. J. Leitch ^ figured the humerus above-mentioned and recorded two
skulls and other bones of the wild ox from the same locality.
1 Trans. Cumberland Assoc, vol. viii. p. 210 (1882).
2 Ibid. vol. ix. p. 164 (1884).
71
HISTORY OF CITMBERLAND
BOTANICAL DISTRICTS
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V
II
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I. South Western
English Kiles
LIST OF BOTANICAL DISTRICTS
II. Coast Line III. Central Plain
IV. /VorfA Eastern
Tim EdJEilnirgb. GtjortcnpticaL Xajtibilj^
J.&,Bn,d.oloniow.
THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND
BOTANY
THE county of Cumberland, owing to the great variety of its
land surfaces, possesses a large variety of vegetable life, alpine,
aquatic, maritime, and plants of cultivation, besides such as are
peculiar to bogs, peat mosses and open moorlands. Its botanical
history is somewhat meagre. From all the information I have been able
to gather, it would seem that very slight attention had been paid to
botanical investigation prior to the restoration of king Charles II., and
that the real pioneers of the study practically were Lawson, Ray,
Willison, and Dr. William Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle, who left behind
him at his death a MS. list of Cumberland and Westmorland plants
founded upon Ray's Catalogue, and supplemented by additions founded
on the worthy prelate's personal gatherings around Carlisle and in the
parish of Great Strickland, near Penrith, of which he had been formerly
rector. He lived at the rectory when Lawson was schoolmaster at Great
Strickland in the adjoining county of Westmorland. From some quaint
remarks in the bishop's book, which through the courtesy of the late
Bishop Goodwin I had the privilege of examining and making extracts
from, there would appear to have been friendly correspondence and in-
terchange of thought between the two. The rectory is not more than
a dozen miles from Lawson's abode at Strickland. It would further
seem from the frequent occurrence of the phrases ' subter moenia,' ' inter
rudera,' and 'juxta fossas,' that the city defences at Carlisle were in a
ruinous condition in 1690, the date of the bishop's MS., and had pro-
bably not been repaired since the siege and capture by Cromwell's troops
not fifty years before.
Some corroboration as to the scarcity of botanical information as
regards Cumberland up to comparatively recent times is afforded by
reference to the pages of a recently published work by Mr. W. A.
Clarke, F.L.S., containing ' First Records of British Plants.' Only six
species are included referring to Cumberland, chiefly on the authority of
Willison and discovered by him in the course of a journey from Hexham
to Penrith about 1 670. These are Vicia Orobus, DC, to which Bishop
Nicolson adds ' nostratibus, horse-pease,' at Gamblesby ; Alchemilla alpina,
L., and Circeea alpina, L., both by Hullswater Lake {sic) ; Vaccinium
uliginosum, L., at Osten (now Alston) ; Lobelia Dortmanna, L., which the
bishop calls ' Water gladiole ' in Hullswater, and Salix cinerea, L., Cum-
berland in general. 1753. — Since Nicolson's day additions to local
botany in Cumberland have been made chiefly by Dawson Turner, joint
73
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
editor of the Botanists Guide through England and Wales, assisted by the
Rev. John Dodd, vicar of Aspatria previous to 1804, the Rev. W.
Wood of Whitehaven, and the Rev. John Harriman of Eglestone,
Durham. The records left by the last-named gentleman still remain as
authentic as anything that has come under the writer's personal notice.
A list published in Hutchinson's History of Cumberland (1794), compiled
mainly by the Rev. W. Richardson, vicar of Dacre, is far from being
equally trustworthy, and was rather severely criticized by Mr. N. J.
Winch, of Newcastle, who himself, from personal observations, published
an amended catalogue in 1824. Mr. J. G. Baker of Kew Gardens says
of him, ' Winch was a capital botanist.' John Rooke, a Whitehaven
artist of more than local repute, who died so lately as 1872, left at his
decease a collection of botanical drawings bound up into six volumes.
These drawings, executed with great fidelity down to the minutest detail,
were sold by the artist's executors to Mr. J. C. Brown, J. P., of Hazel
Holme, Whitehaven, by whom they are justly prized. Rev. Robert
Wood, sixty-two years vicar of Westward parish, Wigton, and Mr.
William Dickinson, F.L.S., of Thorncroft, Workington, were zealous
co-workers in natural science for more than half a century, and left
behind them valuable collections of dried plants as evidences of their
industrious research. It was the writer's happy lot to be their associate
in his earlier botanical studies and to be able to avail himself of their
experience. The late Dr. John Leitch (M.B. and CM. of Edinburgh)
who practised at Silloth, where he died so recently as 1897, was a keen
botanist and did much to promote the study of plants in his own locality
especially in looking after the mass of alien plants annually appearing at
Silloth, from the dressings of foreign cargoes of grain discharged at
the port.
It would be unpardonable to omit all notice of the Lakeland Flora,
published by Mr. J. Gilbert Baker, F.L.S., of the Royal Gardens at Kew
(the MS. of which he submitted to me for examination) as a contribu-
tion to our county flora ; or to acknowledge the courteous and invaluable
aid extended to me by him in verifying the identity of alien and other
plants collected by myself and co-workers at Silloth, Maryport, and
Derwent Tinplate Works, Workington, the number of species amounting
to about 200.
Much remains to be done before the botany of the county as a
whole can be considered as approximately complete. Some districts I
admit may be set down as practically exhausted, as for instance the
neighbourhood of Keswick, the great resort of tourists to the Lake
district. It is in the extreme north and north-east, abutting on the
Pennines, that so little has been hitherto accomplished, and I leave the
work to be undertaken by younger men of active habits unburdened by
the infirmities of age.
I would gladly here add a word of hearty and grateful acknowledgment to the living
friends and fellow-labourers who have aided me in the task of compilation of the Flora of
Cumberland. These include Miss E. J. Glaister, Skinburness House ; Miss Julia Curwen,
74
BOTANY
Roewath ; Mrs. Mary Carr, Silloth ; Mr. J. C. Smith, Penrith ; Mr. Jos. Adair, Egremont ;
Rev. R. Wood, Rosley Vicarage ; Mr. R. H. Hamilton, Maryport ; Rev. Hilderic Friend,
late of Carlisle and Cockermouth ; Mr. John Glaister, Skinburness ; Messrs. Lidbetter and
Hall, Brookfield, Wigton ; Mr. W. Duckworth, late of Carlisle ; Mr. George Coggins,
Clifton Hall ; Messrs. Dickson and Stratton, Gilgarron, Whitehaven ; Mr. Thomas Lister,
Flimby ; Rev. F. Addison, Thirsk, Yorks ; Mr. S. L. Petty, Ulverston ; Mr. W. Thomson,
Carlisle.
ZONES OF TEMPERATURE AND ALTITUDE
By ' range ' is signified range in altitude above sea-level, and by the
figures I, 2, 3, 4 the zones of altitude in which the plant is commonly
found in Cumberland. For tracing out the vertical range of species the
late Mr. H. C. Watson divided the surface of Britain into two ' regions '
and six * zones ' of temperature. The two regions he designated as
' agrarian ' and ' arctic' The agrarian includes the whole surface of
the island from sea-level, as far up the hills as arable cultivation is prac-
ticable. This is up to about 600 yards above sea-level in the north of
England, and 400 yards in Scotland or the Scottish Highlands. All
above this belongs to the arctic region, which is so named because its
characteristic plants have their headquarters within the Arctic Circle, or
at any rate in the far north. Each of these two regions he divided into
three zones : super-agrarian, mid-agrarian, and infer-agrarian ; super-
arctic, mid-arctic, and infer-arctic. Of these six zones the coldest and
the warmest, the super-arctic and the infer-agrarian are not represented
in the county, but we have all the other four. Counting from below,
the zone No. i corresponds to Watson's mid-agrarian, zone No. 2 to his
super-agrarian, zone No. 3 to his infer-arctic, and zone No. 4 to his
mid-arctic. Cumberland it may be noted is the only county in England,
portions of which are included in the last-mentioned zone.
Zone I — mid-agrarian of Watson — extends in Cumberland from
shore level to an altitude of 900 feet upon the hills, and includes all the
larger lakes and valleys, as well as the great bulk of the surface under
tillage up to an altitude corresponding to that of Castle Crag, Keswick,
though not quite reaching so high as the summit of Eycott Hill, over
Berrier. The average annual temperature may be estimated at from
45° to 48° Fahr.
Zone 2 — super-agrarian zone of Watson — includes that portion
of the hill country which lies at an elevation of from 900 to 1,800 feet,
or from the summit of Castle Crag to that of Great (sometimes called)
Wester Mell Fell. The average annual temperature of this zone may
be set down as ranging from 42° to 45° Fahr. Broadly speaking culti-
vation does not reach quite to the summit of the super-agrarian but to
the top of the mid-agrarian, or in exceptional instances a trifle higher.
The super-agrarian flora at the lakes is materially smaller than in the
eastern counties of England.
Zone 3 — infer-arctic zone of Watson — includes a belt of mountains
between 1,800 and 2,700 feet in altitude, or from the top of Great Mell
Fell or Lord's Seat over Bassenthwaite Lake to the summit of High
75
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Stile in Ennerdale, or High Street, which latter mountain belongs to
Westmorland. The average temperature of this zone is from 39° to 42°,
Above the level of 2,700 feet but little vegetation of any kind is to be
met with. Only the highest tarn, viz.. Sprinkling Tarn, on the north
of Scaw Fell, the elevation of which is 1,900 feet above sea-level, falls
distinctly within the bounds of this zone. Here are to be found alpine
plants such as Oxyria digyna, Silene acaulis, Sedum Rhodiola, Saxifraga
oppositifolia, S. nivalis, S. ste//aris, Gerastium alpinum, Hieracium alpinum,
H. chrysanthum, Thalictrum alpinum ; and also that very rare species
Saussurea alpina, Vaccinium Myrtillus, V. Vitis-Idcea and Epilobium alsine-
folium, with some of our hardier ferns may be found in the crevices of
the slate cliffs.
Zone 4 — Watson's mid-arctic zone — includes all the mountain
summits in excess of 2,700 feet in height, namely : —
Feet
Scawfell Pike 3>2o6
Scawfell 3>i6i
Helvellyn 3> 1 1 8
Skiddaw 3,058
Bowfell 2,960
Great Gable 2,949
The Pillar 2,927
Feet
Hanging Knott 2,903
Great End 2,892
Cross Fell 2,892
Blencathra (Saddleback) . . . 2,847
Great Dodd 2,804
Grassmoor 2,791
The Steeple 2,756
Here there is nothing but bare rocky hill top, with a very scanty
vegetation. The only two plants which are characteristic of this zone
are Salix herbacea and Carex rigida, which grow on most of the hills just
mentioned, and are the two most distinctly arctic plants of our flora.
FLORA OF CUMBERLAND
SUMMARY OF ORDERS, NUMBER OF GENERA AND OF SPECIES IN
EACH ORDER
Total
Total
Excluded
Total
Total
Exclude
Genera
Species
Species
Genera
Species
Species
in each
in each
in each
in each
in each
in each
Order
Order
Order
Order
Order
Order
CLASS I.
9-
10.
Violaceae . . .
Polygaleae . . .
I
I
9
3
DiCOTYLEDONES OR
II.
Frankenaceae (not
EXOGENE^
represented)
Div. I. Thalamiflora
12.
Caryophylleae
Portulaceae . .
13
2
46
3
14
I
I . Ranunculaceae . .
13
34
6
14.
Tamariscineae
I
2. Berberideae
I
I
—
I-).
Elatinea
I
2
3. Nymphasaceae
2
2
—
16.
Hypericineae
I
9
3
4. Papaveraceae
3
7
3
17-
Malvaceas .
3
■ S
2
5. Fumariaceae
2
8
2
18.
Tiliaceae .
I
2
6. Cruciferse .
25
■jq
10
iq.
Lineae . .
2
3
2
7. Resedaceae .
I
2
I
20.
Geraniaceae.
3
14
6
8. Cistinese
I
I
—
21.
Ilicineae . .
I
I
—
76
BOTANY
Total
Total
Excluded
Total
Total
Excluded
Genera
Species
Species
Genera
Species
Species
in each
in each
in each
in each
in each
in each
Order
Order
Order
Order
Order
Order
Div. 11. Calyciflora
68. Loranthaceae
69. Santalaceae .
I
I
I
I
22. Celastrineas. . .
I
I
70. Euphorbiaceae
3
10
5
23. Rhamneae . . .
I
2
71. Urticaceae .
4
6
I
24. Sapindacese . . .
I
2
I
72. Myricacese .
I
I
25. Leguminosae . .
18
59
19
73. Cupuliferae .
7
9
I
26. Rosacese . . .
14
82
13
74. Salicineae .
2
16
5
27. Saxifrageae . .
4
14
3
75. Empetraceae
I
I
28. Crassulaceae . .
4
8
2
76. Ceratophyllese (no
t
29. Droseraceae . .
I
3
—
represented)
30. Halorageae . . .
3
10
2
31. Lythraceae . . .
2
2
—
Div. V. Gymnoipermt
e
32. Onograrieae. , .
4
13
3
77. Coniferae . .
3
4
I
33. Cucurbitaceje . .
I
I
34. Umbelliferae . .
41
43
17
CLASS IT.
35. Araliaceae . . .
I
I
36. Cornaceae . . .
I
I
—
MONOCOTYLEDONES OI
ENDOGENiE
I
Div. III. Corolliflora
37. Caprifoliaceae . .
5
6
2
Div. I. PetaloidciS
38. Rubiacea . .
4
14
4
78. Hydrocharideae
3
3
2
39. Valerianeae . . .
3
7
3
79. Orchideae . .
16
29
II
40. Dipsaceae . . .
2
5
I
80. Irides . .
5
5
4
41. Compositae . . .
48
94
57
81. AmaryllidcEe
3
4
4
42. Campanulaceas. .
6
ID
4
82. Dioscoreae .
I
1
43. Vaccineaceae . .
2
4
83. Liliaceae. .
19
20
14
44. Ericaceae . . .
10
II
6
84. Juncaceas .
2
21
4
45. Monotropeae (not
85. Typhaceae .
2
6
represented)
86. Aroidese. .
2
3
I
46. Plumbagineae . .
2
5
I
87. Lemnaceae .
2
4
I
47. Primulaceae . .
9
14
5
88. Alismacese .
5
3
3
48. Oleaceas . . .
2
2
89. Naiadaces . .
5
19
II
49. Apocynaces . .
I
I
I
90. Eriocauleae (not re-
50. Gentianeae . . .
7
9
—
presented)
51. PolemoniacesE . .
I
I
52. Boraginese . . .
II
17
6
Div. II. Glumifercs
53. Convolvulaceas
3
5
2
91. Cyperaceae . . .
9
64
21
54. Solanacese . . .
5'
4
2
92. Gramineae . . .
49
99
23
55. Scrophularineae.
14
38
II
56. Orobanchacex . .
2
5
3
CLASS III.
57. Lentibularieas . .
2
5
2
58. Verbenacese . .
I
I
ACOTYLEDONES OR
59. Labiatas . . .
19
40
13
Cryptogame^
60. Plantagineae . .
61. lUecebraceae . .
2
4
6
3
I
4
Div. I. Vasculares
62. Amaranthaceae. .
I
5
93. Filices . . . .
17
37
—
94. Equisetaceae
I
7
Div. IV. Monochlamydea
95. Lycopodiaceae .
I
/
5
—
63. Chenopodiaceae
6
23
3
96. Selaginellaceae .
2
2
—
64. Polygonaceae . .
4
24
3
97. Marsileaceae .
I
I
—
65. Aristolochiacea; .
I
I
I
98. Characeae .
3
6
—
66. Thymeliaceae .
I
—
I
67. Eleagnaceae. . .
I
—
~
Total . .
527
1 1 96
364
77
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Additional plants gathered at Silloth by the late John Leitch, Esq., M.D., of that town,
copied from the doctor's MS.
Natives of Britain, or mentioned in Babington's Manual.
Alyssum calycinum, L.
Erysimum cheiranthoides, L.
Diplotaxis muralis, DC.
Coronopus didymus, Sm.
Silene noctiflora, L.
Ornithopus perpusillus, L., introduced on Silloth
Green, where it is extremely plentiful in the
short turf
Viola Curtisii (Forster) now also abundant
Carum Carui, L.
Anthemis tinctoria, L.
Achillea tomentosa, L.
Carduus crispus, L., v. polyanthemos (Koch)
— pycnocephalus, L.
Cnicus arvensis, L., v. setosus (Bess.)
Crepis setosa. Hall. fil.
Solanum nigrum, L.
Calamintha arvensis, Lam.
Lamium purpureum, L., v. decipiens (Sender)
Dipsacus sylvestris, Huds.
Chenopodium polyspermum, L.
Lolium temulentum, L.
Avena strigosa, Schreb.
Polypogon monspeliensis, Desf.
Setaria viridis, Beauv.
Bromus squarrosus, L.
— patulus, Reich.
— arvensis, L.
— commutatus, Schrad.
— diandrus, Curt.
Caucalis nodosa, Scop. ^
Mariana lactea, Hill \ W.H., 1900
Nasturtium terrestre,R.Br.J
Aliens
Malcomia crenulata, Boiss
Lepidium perfoliatum, L.
— virginicum, L.
Eruca vesicaria, Cav.
Brassica juncea, L.
Moricandia arvensis, DC.
Chorispora syriaca, Boiss
Silene dichotoma, Ehrh.
Trigonella Foenum-graecum, L.
— monspeliac», L.
Medicago Soleriolii, Duby.
Trifolium parviflorum, Ehrh.
Potentilla collina, Wibel
CEnothera tenella, Cav.
Hypecoum grandiflorum, Benth.
Hemizonia pungens, Torr fif Gray
— Kelloggii, Greene
Phacelia ciliata, Benth.
Gilia achillesefolia, Benth.
— intertexta, Steud.
Carthamus lanatus, L.
Neslia paniculata, Desv.
Valerianella coronata, DC.
Ambrosia artemisiifolia, L.
Madia racemosa, Torr y Gray
Sideritis montana, L.
Mentzelia albicaulis, Dougl.
Grindelia (?)
Lathyrus sphaericus, Retz.
Herniaria hirsuta, L. Miss E. J. Glaister,
1900
COUNTY AREAS
It is customary to distinguish the several areas into which the surface of a county may
be mapped out for the purposes of a flora, by prefixing to each division the initial letter of
some river of importance as representing a river basin or system. I found, in compiling my
recently published Flora of the County of Cumberland^ that this plan, which has many advan-
tages to recommend it, would be impracticable here where we have so many leading streams
with the same initial letter ; e.g. Eden, Ellen, Esk (two), Eamont, Ehen ; similarly Caldew,
Calder, Cocker ; Wampool, Waver, Wiza ; Glenderamakin, Glenderaterra, Greta ; and so
on. To prevent confusion in this way I mapped out the areas as follows : —
District I
This area includes the southern portion of the county, is triangular in outline, and has
on the east the river Duddon and the main watershed of the Cumbrian group of mountains.
The river Derwent constitutes the northern boundary for the greater part of its course, the
exception being at the north-eastern corner of the triangle, where the Skiddaw and Helvellyn
fells are included, though situated some miles to the northward of the sources of that river.
This arrangement provides for the inclusion of Lake Ullswater, which would otherwise be
segregated from the remainder of the lakes, which all lie within the limits prescribed. The
western side of the triangle is bounded by the Irish Sea and the Solway Firth throughout its
entire length. It will be noticed that this area is to a large extent covered by rugged and
lofty hills, which consist principally of rocks of volcanic origin, mixed in places with masses
of granitic or granitoid cliffs and scattered boulders. In some places, as at Honister Crag in
Buttermere, the Skiddaw slate is quarried and dressed for roofing purposes ; and near the
78
BOTANY
village of Threlkeld are extensive quarries of granitic rock for street pavement. Owring in a
great measure to these rocks being much affected by cleavage and to their being virell jointed,
they tend to give rise to screes, and especially is this the case belowr the foot of each crag.
These screes or masses of loose rock fragments of varying sizes, from their very nature pre-
sent a great variety of surface — wet or dry, sunny or shady, bare rock or thin soil — and are the
chosen abode of a great variety of plants, many of which, our bonniest ferns and club-mosses
among the rest, are rare in other less favoured situations.
A series of hills of inferior elevation lies along the north-western base of the Cumbrian
group. These have a very distinct and remarkable outline, conoidal or plum-pudding shaped.
They include Great and Little Mell Fells, Soulby Fell, and Dunmallet at the foot of Ulls-
water. Great or Wester Mell Fell, as it is sometimes called, attains an elevation of 1,760
feet. The rest of the series are of inferior altitude. They consist of masses of conglomerate
of variable thickness, generally considered as forming part of the Upper Old Red Sandstone.
In the extreme north-western angle of the area, the cliffs composing the lofty promontory
known as St. Bees Head, rising upwards of 300 feet in perpendicular altitude above the sea
at their base, and continued at gradually decreasing height to the mouth of the river Derwent
below Workington, belong to the New Red Sandstone formation.
Between the shore-line and the loftier mountains, and amongst the foothills of the range,
large deposits of iron hjematite ores have been discovered and extensively worked during the
last half-century. Large works have been established for the smelting of these ores and the
manufacture of steel rails, etc., for railway purposes, which are largely exported to all parts
of the globe. The furnaces are at Millom, Cleator Moor, Whitehaven, Harrington, Working-
ton and Maryport. The ports of export are the three last-mentioned towns and Whitehaven.
So small an interval separates the sea from the mountains in this area that the rivers
are but short in their course ; the descent being so rapid that, with the single exception of
the Derwent, they are little serviceable for purposes of navigation. They include the Esk,
Irt, Mite, Calder and Ehen.
The botanical productions of this area include of course many plants of an alpine
character not to be met with elsewhere in the county, or even in England. The following
are deserving of special mention, taking them in the order observed by the compilers of the
London Catalogue as under : halictrum alpinum, L., is found on Scawfell Pikes, overlapping,
Salix herbacea ; also near Sprinkling Tarn, Styhead Tarn and Great End ; summit of Black
Sail pass ; Hanging Knott at about 2,000 feet, with Juncus triglumis, L., and on Little Hel-
vellyn, 2,400 feet, where it flowers in great plenty, and there the writer saw it for the first
time in a fully developed stage, although he had for years noticed it by the edge of rills at a
lower altitude. Epimedium alpinum, L., mentioned by old writers as occurring on Skiddaw,
Blencathra and Carrock, is now confined to gentlemen's pleasure grounds, as about White-
field House, Overwater ; Gilgarran, Whitehaven, etc. Silene acaulis, L., crags of Mickledore,
and on the black rocks of Great End (1,500-2,000 feet). It occurs at several stations im-
mediately beyond the border line which divides Cumberland from the adjoining county of
Westmorland. Lychnis alpina, L., is found only on one of the lake hills (Hobcarten, over
the vale of Lorton), said to have been first gathered by a schoolboy when searching for
* cill ' for the home manufacture of slate pencils (Wilson Robinson). Alchemilla alpina, L.,
abundant on most of the Lakeland hills of the slate formation. It is found on Scawfell, Great
End, Lingmell, Great Gable (up to 2,750 feet), Red Pike, Pillar, on the Ennerdale and
Wastdale hills, Honister, etc. Saxifraga oppositifolia, L., high slate crags ; very rare ; near
the summit of Scawfell. In the writer's opinion this plant may be overlooked when not in
bloom, or passed by as Thymus Serpyllum, Fr., the more likely as it flowers early in the season.
Saxifraga nivalis, L., near the summit of Scawfell ; Helvellyn ; Legberthwaite Fells, on the
western or Thirlmere slope. Epilobium alsinefolium, VilL, on the Helvellyn group of hills,
Great Gable, Styhead Pass, Ashness Ghyll, Whinlatter, etc. Saussurea alpina, DC., high
slate cliffs ; very rare ; near Floutern Tarn. A specimen in the writer's possession was
gathered by him at some risk on the cliffs of Little Helvellyn, just over the Westmorland
border in 1882. At the same date Saxifraga stellaris, L., was observed in bloom within a few
feet of the highest peak on Helvellyn proper. The following Hieracia, viz. H. alpinum,
L., H. chrysanthum, Backh., H. anglicum, Fr., H. pallidum, and H. argenteum, Fr., have
all been found on the lofty cliffs of Scawfell, Glaramara, Great Gable, or Great End.
Oxyria digyna. Hill., high wet slate crags, not uncommon ; Piers Ghyll, Mickledore, Sty-
head Tarn, Wastwater Screes, Honister, Helvellyn Screes, over Wythburn, ' Eandem in Westm.
et Cumbria montosis observavit T. Lawson et nos etiam olim' (J. Ray, 1690). Salix herbacea,
79
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
L., Scawfell Pikes, Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Blencathra, Grassmoor, Glaramara, Hobcarten, Red
Pike and the Pillar. Juniperus nana, Willd., Wastdale Screes, Helvellyn, 'clothes the top
ridge of Whiteside mountain like a carpet ' (J. Adair). Malaxis paludosa, Sw., Wastwater ;
spongy bog at the foot of Grassmoor. Juncus triglumisy L., by Loweswater Lake ; Scales Tarn
on Blencathra (Saddleback), Fisher Place Ghyll (Helvellyn), Borrowdale (Keswick). Carex
atrata, L., and C. rigida, Good., are both to be found about the summits of the Helvellyn
and Scawfell group of hills, the latter being of more frequent occurrence. Poa alpina, L.,
cliffs on Helvellyn and Dollywaggon Pike ; specimens gathered on Skiddaw were sent to the
writer some twenty years ago by Mr. W. Duckworth, formerly of Carlisle. P. Balfourii
(Bab.), highest Lakeland hills (J. G. Baker); Helvellyn, 1853 (Balfour). Asplenium ger-
manicum, Weiss., Borrowdale Fells; Scawfell; Skiddaw; Barf Fell, Thornthwaite, on the west
side of Bassenthwaite Lake. y^. septentrionah, Hull, slate rocks ; very rare ; Borrowdale and
Newlands Vale, Wastwater Screes, Honister Crags, and over Crummock Lake. Polystichum
Lonchitis, Roth., Helvellyn and Carrock Fell ; all the growing specimens noted by the author
grew well within the Westmorland border. Asplenium marinum, L., is found on the cliffs at
St. Bees Head ; A. viride, Huds., sparingly on Carrock Fell and in Borrowdale.
Ranunculace^
Clematis Vitalba, L.
Thalictrum alpinum, L.
— majus, Crantz
— Kochii, Fr.
Adonis autumnalis, L.
Ranunculus peltatus, var. floribundus, Bab.
— Flammula, var. radicans, Nolte.
— reptans, L.
Caltha palustris, var. minor, DC.
Helleborus viridis, L.
Actaea spicata, L.
Berberide^
Epimedium alpinum, L.
Papaverace^
Meconopsis cambrica, Vig.
Glaucium phaeniceum, Crantz
Cruciferje
Barbarea intermedia, Boreau. i, 2
Cochlearia Armoracia, L. 1,3
Hesperis matronalis, L. 1,3
Camelina sativa, Crantz
Brassica Rapa, var. sativa, H. C. Wats.
Lepidium sativum, L.
— Draba, L.
Caryophylle^
Saponaria Vaccaria, L. i, 2, 3
Silene acaulis, L.
Lychnis alpina, L.
Cerastium alpinum, L.
Buda marina, Dum., var. neglecta (Kindb.)
PoRTULACE^
Claytonia sibirica, L.
— perfoliata, Donn.
Hypericine^
Hypericum colycinum, L.
Malvace*
Malva parviflora, L.
Geraniace^
Geranium striatum, L.
— phceum, L.
OxaRs comiculata, L.
Impatiens parviflora, DC.
— Noli-tangere, L.
80
LEGUMINOSiE
Medicago sativa, L.
— falcata, L.
Trifolium incarnatum, L.
Vicia lutea, L. 1,2
Lathyrus Aphaca, L. i, 2, 4
— spharicus, Retz. i, 2
Rosacea
Spirtea salicifolia, L. 1,3
Rubus incurvatus, Bab.
— pulcherrimus, Neum.
— rhamnifolius, W. £if N. i, 3
— rosaceus, W. y N.
— saxatilis, L.
Dryas octopetala, L.
Potentilla argentea, L.
Alchemilla alpina, L.
Rosa pimpinellifolia, var. spinosissima, L. i , z,
— involuta, var. Sabini (Woods)
— hibernica, Sm.
— gracilis, Woods
— tomentosa, var. sylvestris (Lindl.)
— glauca, var. subcristata, Baker
— canina, var. coriifolia (Fr.)
Pyrus pinnatifida, Ehrh.
Crataegus Oxyacantha, var. monogyna (Jacq.)
Saxifrages
Saxifraga oppositifolia, L.
— nivalis, L.
— Geum, L.
Ribes Grossularia, L.
Crassulaces
Sedum villosum, L.
— album, L.
— refiexum, L.
Sempervivum tectorum, L.
Droseraces
Drosera anglica, Huds.
— intermedia, Hayne
Halorages
Callitriche hamulata, Kuetz.
BOTANY
Onagrarie^
Epilobium alsinefolium, Vill.
(Enothera biennis, L.
Circaea alpina, L.
Cucurbitace;e
Bryonia dioica, Jacq.
Umbelliferje
Smyrnium Olusatrum, L.
Bupleurum rotundifolium, L.
Ammi majus, L.
Carum Carui, L.
Scandix Pecten-Veneris, L.
Foeniculum vulgare, Mill.
Peucedanum Ostruthium, Koch
Caucalis latifolia, L.
— nodosa, Scop.
Capri foliace/e
Sambucus Ebulus, L.
Lonicera Xyhsteum, L.
RUBIACE^
Galium boreale, L.
Asperula arvensis, L.
Valeriane^
Centranthus ruber, DC.
Composite
Anthemis tinctoria, L.
Chrysanthemum Parthenium, Pers.
Petasites albus, Gaertn.
Doronicum Pardalianches, L.
Senecio saracenicus, L.
Carduus heterophyllus, Willd.
Cnicus arvensis
d. setosus (Bess.), i, 2
Saussurea alpina, DC.
Picris echioides, L.
Hieraeium aurantlacum, L.
— holosericum, Backh.
— chrysanthum, Backh.
— anglicum, Fr.
— argenteum, Fr.
— caesium, Fr.
h. Smithii, Baker.
— vulgatum, Fr.
— gothicum (Fr. pt.), Backh.
— corymbosum, Fr.
— umbellatum, L.
Taraxacum officinale, Web.
h. erythrospermum (Anderz.)
Vacciniace^
Vaccinium uliginosum, L.
Ericacea
Arctostaphylus Uva-ursi, Spreng.
Pyrola rotundifolia, L.
Primulacea
Primula farinosa, L.
Trientalis europaea, L.
Centunculus minimus, L.
I
81
Boragine^
Borago efficinaRs, L.
Anchusa sempervirens, L.
Pulmonaria angustifolia, L.
CONVOLVULACE^
Cuscuta trifolii, Bab.
SCROPHULARINE^
Verbascum virgatum, Stokes
Linaria cymbalaria, Mill.
— purpurea, Mill.
— minor, Desf.
Antirrhinum Orontium, L.
Mimulus luteus, L.
Orobanchace/e
Orobanche major, L.
Verbenace^
Verbena officinalis, L.
Labiate
Mentha vhidis, L.
— hirsuta, Huds.
h. sub-glabra. Baker
— sativa, L.
b. paludosa (Sole)
Leonurus Cardiaca, L.
Lamium macuktum, L.
Plantagine^
Plantago arenaria, Waldst. £5? Kit.
Amaranthace^
Amaranthus retroflexus, L.
— Blitum, L.
Chenopodiace^
Chenopodium opuRfolium, Schrad.
Salicornia herbacea, L.
POLYGONACE^
Polygonum amphibium, L.
b. terrestre, Leers.
— viviparum, L.
b. alpinum, Wahl.
Fagopyrum escukntum, Moench
Oxyria digyna, Hill.
Rumex scutatus, L.
Aristolochiace^
Asarum europaeum, L.
Euphorbiace^
Euphorbia Esula, L.
— Cyparissias, L.
Mercurialis annua, L.
b. ambigua (L.)
Cupuufer^
Carpinus Betulus, L.
Quercus Robur
a. pedunculata (Ehrh.)
c. sessiliflora (Salisb.)
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Salicina
Salix alba, L.
b. vitellina (L.)
— repens, L.
f. argentea (Sm.)
— herbacea, L.
— phylicifolia, L.
Pofulus nigra, L.
Conifers
Juniperus nana, Willd.
Taxus baccata, L.
Pinus sylvestris, L.
Orchide«
Malaxis paludosa, Sw.
Listera cordata, R. Br.
Orchis militaris, L. [? ?]
Cephalanthera ensifolia. Rich.
Cypripedium Calceolus, L.
Iride^
Sisyrinchium angustifolium. Mill.
Amaryllide^
Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus, L.
Galanthus nivalis, L.
LlLIACE^ffi:
Polygonatum multiflorum. All.
Convallaria majalis, L.
Ornithogalum nutans, L.
— umbellatum, L.
Lilium Martagpn, L.
Colchicum autumnale, L.
JuNCACE^ffi
Juncus filiformis, L.
— triglumis, L.
Luzula spicata, DC.
— erecta, Desv.
b. congesta, Koch
Lemnace^
Lemna trisulca, L.
Naiadace^
Potamogeton polygonifolius, Pourr.
b. pseudo-fluitans, Syme
— plantagineus, Du Croz
— pusillus, L.
Ruppia rostellata, Koch
Zannichellia palustris, L.
Zostera marina, L.
Cyperace«
Rynchospora alba, Vahl.
Carex pauciflora, Lightf.
— disticha, Huds.
— vulpina, L.
— BoEnninghauseniana, Weihe
— atrata, L.
— rigida. Good
— limosa, L.
— pilulifera, L.
— laevigata, Sm.
— filiformis, L.
— fulva, Good
Graminea
Pankum Crus-galR, L.
Setaria viridis, Beauv.
— glauca, Beauv.
— verticillata, Beauv.
Phalaris canariensis, L.
Milium efFusum, L.
Polypogon monspellens'u, Desf.
Gastridium australe, Beauv.
Apera Spica-venti, Beauv.
Deyeuxia strigosa, Kunth.
Avena fatua, L.
Cynosurus echinatus, L.
Melica nutans, L.
Poa alpina, L.
— glauca, Sm. )
— Balfourii, Parn. j
— pratensis, L.
b. subcoerulea (Sm.)
Glyceria distans, Wahlenb.
Festuca sylvatica, Vill.
Bromus arvensis, L.
Lolium linkola, Sonder.
— temulentum, L.
b. arvense (With.)
Agropyron pungens, Roem. y Schult.
— acutum, Roem. y Schult.
Lepturus filiformis, Trin.
Elymus arenarius, L.
Filices
Asplenium lanceolatum, Huds.
— viride, Huds.
— germanicum, Weiss.
— septentrionale, Hull.
Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh.
b. dentata (Hook.)
Polystichum Lonchitis, Roth.
— angulare, Presl.
Lastrea Thelypteris, Presl.
— Filix-mas, Presl.
b. aifinis, Bab.
c. paleacea, Moore
e. abbreviata, Bab.
— uliginosa, Newman
— aemula, Brackenridge
Phegopteris calcarea, F6e
Equisetace«
Equisetum maximum, Lam.
— hyemale, L.
Lycopodiace^
Lycopodium annotinum, L.
— inundatum, L.
SELAGINELLACE^ffi
Selaginella selaginoides, Gray
Isoetes lacustris, L.
Marsileace^
Pilularia globulifera, L.
Charace^s
Chara fragilis, Desv.
— aspera, Willd.
Nitella flexilis, Agardh
— opaca, Agardh
82
BOTANY
District II
This area is limited to the line of coast extending from Haverigg Point in the south to
the estuaries of the Eden and Esk rivers at the head of the Solway Firth as far as the mouth
of the Sark river, which during the latter part of its course from the ' Scots dike ' southv/ards
divides England from Scotland and Cumberland from Dumfriesshire. In a northerly direction
from the estuary of the Duddon to St. Bees village the coast-line is low, flat and sandy, though
the mountains are seen to be at no great distance to the eastward. A little to the south of
Bootle indeed, Black Coombe (1,969 feet) appears as a sort of outpost or sentinel of the main
group, approaching nearer the sea and standing in majesty alone. Other foothills of inferior
altitude are also seen at varying distances. Northward of St. Bees the lofty sandstone cliffs of
the promontory rise abruptly from the sea to a height of over 300 feet. With a gradually
decreasing altitude they stretch along the shore as far as Harrington, and even to Maryport.
Continuing northward the rugged cliffs are seen no more, and the shore-line and beach become
flat and level, consisting of a mixture of sand, gravel and alluvial material, which is continued
past the estuaries of the Waver and Wampool rivers, also those of the rivers Eden and Esk,
to the outfall of the Sark as above mentioned. Towards this northern part several marshes
occur liable in portions to be submerged by spring tides, as at Skinburness and Calvo-Whitrigg
and Bowness Flow, Burgh and Rockcliffe Marshes. Further inland are also bogs or peat
mosses, as Bowness and Solway Mosses on opposite sides of the firth. Altogether the tidal
line cannot be much under eighty miles in length.
The more uncommon or striking plants deserving of special mention include the follow-
ing, ranged as in District I., viz. Alyssum incanum, L., and ^. calycinum, both found at Sil-
loth ; Cochlearia danica, L., Workington pier ; Diplotaxis tenuifoUa, DC, Maryport ballast
since 1880 and steadily increasing; Coronopus didymus, Sm., at the same station; Crambe
marittma, L., until quite lately grew nearly a mile north of Workington harbour, but has been
obliterated by masses of slag from the iron furnaces ; Raphanus maritimus, Sm., Workington
north shore, will probably disappear, as a new deep-water dock is projected which will entirely
cover the area of its growth ; Malva parviflora, L., abundant near the Convalescent Institu-
tion at Silloth ; Lathyrus Aphaca, L., has for some years occurred regularly at Silloth ; Eryngium
maritimum, L., coast-line from Workington to Maryport (it also makes a fine show by the
Grune at Skinburness, where it is associated with Salsola Kali, L., also of remarkably fine
growth) ; Crithmum maritimum, L., on the cliflfe of St. Bees and, on the evidence of Bishop
Nicolson, 1690, grew much farther northward, where it was probably destroyed when the
Parton rocks were quarried back to make room for the L. & N. W. Railway along their base ;
Asperula arvensis, L., on a branch line from Silloth to Lord Armstrong's artillery shooting
range ; Artemisia maritima, L., sent to the writer from Duddon Sands by W. Dickinson, F.L.S.,
in 1879 ; Lactuca Scariola, L., Maryport and Silloth ballast, brought probably by grain ships,
1899— 1900 ; Statice auriculce folia, Vahl., Fleswick Bay, under St. Bees Head ; Samolus Vale-
randi, L., swampy ground on Coulderton shore 3 Galeopsis Ladanum, L., on chalk ballast,
Maryport, during the last ten years ; Chenopodium Vulvaria, L., seen at the same station, 1890
(although many of the plants perfected seeds, there has not been any reappearance) ; Suada
maritima, Dum., will probably disappear along with Raphanus maritimus when operations on
the dock are commenced at Workington (it grows also about Skinburness Marsh) ; Rumex
maritimus, L., about Maryport since 1895 ; Euphorbia Esula, L., on the dock junction line of
the Cleator and Workington Railway, not far from the Lonsdale dock, 1893-1900 ; Ruppia
rostellata, Koch, creek near the sea dyke a mile from Skinburness, and on the Cloffbcks at
Workington ; Zostera marina, L., cast upon the beach near Bootle, and also about a mile south
of Maryport harbour ; Catabrosa aquatica, Beauv., in a rill which discharges on the beach below
Coulderton ; Lepturus filiformis, Trin., on Brownrigg and Skinburness marshes, not uncom-
mon ; Avena strigosa, Schreb., on the shore a mile north of Workington ; Elymus arenarius,
L., Workington north shore, established and spreading ; Asplenium marinum, L., cliff's at St.
Bees and, like Crithmum, grew also at Parton cliffs in Bishop Nicolson's day.
Here it may not be out of place to mention that of late years quite a number of medicks,
clovers and vetches have shown themselves in the precincts of Messrs. Carr & Co.'s large corn
mills at Silloth. These have undoubtedly come with foreign grain cargoes, and the probability
is that the bulk of these species came from California, whence I understand the main supply
of their wheat for milling purposes is now obtained. Of medicks there have occurred Medicago
falcata, L., established for some years past in the slate yards ; M. denticulata, with its var.
apiculata (Willd.) ; M. minima, Desr. ; and the curiously fruited M. scutellata, with small
83
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
flowers, solitary or in pairs, and seed vessels shaped like snail shells ; Trifolium striatum, L.,
T. fragiferum, L., and T. filiforme, L. ; Vicia lutea, L., and two or three other plants of the vetch
family which remain unidentified. To these may be added Melilotus messanensis, All., also an
alien.
Plants of rare occurrence found in District II. confined almost exclusively to the shore-
line from Hodbarrow Point at the estuary of the River Duddon to that of the Esk and Eden
at Port Carlisle : —
Ranunculace^
Ranunculus sardous, Crantz
i. parvulus (L.)
Crucifer^
Barbarea preecox, R. Br.
Alpsum incanutn, L.
— ca/ycinum, L.
Cochlearia danica, L.
— anglica, L.
Brassica monensis, Huds.
Diplotaxis tenuifolia, DC.
Coronopus didymus, Sm.
— Ruellii, All.
Crambe maritima, L.
Cakile maritima, Scop.
Raphanus maritimus, Sm.
Resedace^
Reseda lutea, L.
VlOLARIE^
Viola Curtisii, Forster
Caryophylle^
Saponaria Vaccaria, L.
Silene maritima. With.
— noctiflora, L.
Cerastium tetrandrum, Curtis
— semidecandrum, L.
Arenaria peploides, L.
Sagina maritima, Don.
Buda marina, Dum.
c. neglecta (Kindb.)
Malvace^
Althjca hirsuta, L.
Malva parviflora, L.
Geraniace^
Geranium sanguineum, L.
Erodium cicutarium, L'Herit.
Leguminos^
Medicago falcata, L.
— denticulata, Willd.
b. apiculata (Willd.)
— minima, Desr.
Melilotus arvensis, Wallr.
— parviflora. Lam.
— messanensis, All.
Vicia angustifolia, L.
b. Bobartii, Koch
Lathyrus Aphaca, L.
— sphtericus, Retz.
— sylvestris, L.
Rosacea
Potentilla norvegica, L.
Rosa pimpinellifolia, L.
f. spinosissima (L.).
— canina, var. glauca (Vill.)
84
Umbellifera
Eryngium maritimum, L.
Bupleurum rotundifolium, L.
Foeniculum vulgare. Mill.
Crithmum maritimum, L.
CEnanthe Lachenalii, C. Gmel.
Coriandrum sativum, L.
Caucalis daucoides, L.
Rubiace^
Galium tricorne, Stokes
Asperula arvensis, L.
Composite
Aster Tripolium, L.
Xanthium spinosum, L.
Matricaria inodora, L.
b. salina, Bab.
— maritima, L.
Artemisia maritima, L.
Senecio viscosus, L.
Arctium minus, Bernh.
Carduus pycnocephalus, L.
— nutans, L.
Onopordon Acanthium, L.
Hieracium umbellatum, L.
Lactuca virosa, L.
— Scariok, L.
Plumbaginea
Statice Limonium, L.
— rariflora, Drej.
— auriculaefolia, Vahl.
Armeria maritima, Willd.
Primulace^
LysimacMa punctata, L.
Glaux maritima, L.
Samolus Valerandi, L.
BORAOINEA
Jsperugp procumbens, L.
Lithospermum officinale, L.
Echium vulgare, L.
CoNVOLVULACE*
Volvulus Soldanella, Junger.
Convolvulus arvensis, L.
SoLANACEiE
Solanum nigrum, L.
Hyoscyamus niger, L.
SCROPHULARIN^E
Verbascum Thapsus, L.
Linaria purpurea. Mill.
VERBENACEffi
Verbena officinalis, L.
BOTANY
Labiate
Salvia Verbenaca, L.
Stachys annua, L.
Galeopsis Ladanum, L.
Lamium amplexicaule, L.
Ballota nigra, L.
Plantagine^
Plantago maritima, L.
— Coronopus, L.
Amaranthace^
Amaranthus retroflexus, L.
— Blitum, L.
Chenopodiace^
Chenopodium polyspermum, L.
— Vulvaria, L.
— opuHfoRum, Schrad.
— murale, L.
— rubrum, L.
Atriplex littoralis, L.
— deltoidea, Bab.
— laciniata, L.
Beta maritima, L.
Salicornia herbacea, L.
b. procumbens, Moq.
Suaeda maritima, Dum.
Salsola Kali, L.
Polygonaceje
Polygonum Raii, Bab.
— maritimum, L.
Fagofyrum escukntum, Moench
Rumex maritimus, L.
— scutatus, L.
EuPHORBIACEffi
Euphorbia Esula, L.
— Cyparissias, L.
— Paralias, L.
— portlandica, L.
Mercurialis annua, L.
b. ambigua (L.).
Myricace^
Myrica Gale, L.
JUNCACE^
Juncus Gerardi, Loisel.
— maritimus. Lam.
Naiadace^
Triglochin maritimum, L.
Ruppia rostellata, Koch
Zostera marina, L.
Cyperace«
Scirpus maritimus, L.
Carex arenaria, L.
Graminea
Phleum arenarium, L.
Apera Spka-venti, Beauv.
Ammophila arundinacea. Host.
Avena stngosa, Schreb.
— fatua, L.
Phragmites communis, Trin.
Catabrosa aquatica, Beauv.
Glyceria fluitans, R. Br.
— maritima, Mert. iS Koch
— distans, Wahlenb.
Festuca arundinacea, Schreb.
Bromus secalinus, L.
— erectus, Huds.
— tectorum, L.
Agropyron pungens, Roem. £5f Schult.
— acutum, Roem. y Schult.
— junceum, Beauv.
Lepturus filiformis, Trin.
Hordeum murinum, L.
— marinum, Huds.
Elymus arenarius, L.
Filices
Asplenium marinum, L.
Lastrea aemula, Brackenbridge
District III
This area differs widely from the two preceding. It is bounded on the south by the river
Derwent, with the slight exception of the deviation mentioned by the inclusion in District I.
of the Skiddaw, Helvellyn and Blencathra group of mountains : on the east or more strictly
speaking south-east, the river Eamont, which is the dividing line between the counties of
Cumberland and Westmorland from the foot of lake Ullswater to the point where it joins the
river Eden near Langwathby, commonly pronounced ' Langanby.' From this point the last
mentioned river separates it from District IV. to its junction with the Solway Firth some ten
miles below Carlisle. On the west or remaining side the firth constitutes the boundary to
the mouth of the Derwent at Workington. This is the largest of the divisions in point of
area and importance, including as it does the bulk of what is known as the great plain of
Cumberland. Here are no lofty mountain peaks, the highest point being the Beacon Hill near
the town of Penrith, from which a gradually decreasing ridge constituting the summit level,
which separates the valley of the Eden from that of its tributary stream the Petteril, extends
in a northerly direction some nine or ten miles. The valleys of the Eden, Petteril, and
Caldew, another and larger tributary of the Eden, which rises in Skiddaw Forest and joins the
Eden at Carlisle, are mostly and in the two first mentioned streams exclusively on the New
Red Sandstone formation. This sandstone is extensively quarried for building purposes at
Penrith and Lazonby Fells, Cumwhinton, and Newbiggin near Wreay. Also at Lamonby,
Blencowe on the Petteril, Powbeck, Hempsgill Howe and Shawk Quarries. Farther to the
westward there are extensive workings of this material at Aspatria, Westnewton and Mary-
85
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
port. Coal mining is carried on successfully and on a large scale in the lower Derwent
valley and along the course of the river Ellen from Maryport to Ireby, the produce being
shipped from the ports of Workington and Maryport, exclusive of the large quantities used in
the local furnaces and other industries. There is a considerable belt of limestone running
diagonally across the county, from the Eamont near Skirsgill by way of Redhills to Johnby and
Greystoke Park, Hewer Hill, Warnel, Catlands, Ireby and Tallentire to the river Derwent,
crossing that river into District No. I. at Brigham. From this station it extends by way of
Eaglesfield, Pardshaw Crag, Rowrah and Hensingham to the sea beyond Egremont. Along
this line a number of plants may be found generally classed as xerophilous, which are of very
rare occurrence elsewhere. Among these are Helleborus viridis, L. ; Hypericum hirsutum, L. ;.
Dipsacus sylvestris, Huds. ; Origanum vuigare, L. ; Scabiosa Columbaria, L. (this species also
appears in great abundance on what is known as * the Forge Green ' at Hawksdale, probably
brought down by the impetuous stream of the Caldew from the limestone of Warmel or
Hewer Hill, some six miles higher up the river) ; Campanula glomerata, L., Helianthemum
Chamcecistus, Mill, etc.
Between the Caldew and the Ellen valleys on the summit level lies a ridge, the chief
points in which are Hewer Hill, Warnel Fell, Brocklebank and Catlands, all on the limestone ;
and between the Ellen and the Derwent rivers is another ridge bearing at different points the
names of Binsey, Caermote, Whittes, Moota, and Tallentine Hill : the three first being outlying
spurs from Skiddaw belong to the slate formation, the last two are on the limestone with
occasional outcrops of a greyish white sandstone of highly fossiliterous nature. Northward
and eastward from Aspatria to the river Eden the district is flat and of almost uniform level,
composed for the most part of alluvial soil, apparently the detritus of the rocks of the Lake
district brought down from the mountains and deposited where at present found. The Abbey
Holme district is especially level, and towards the Solway in the Silloth neighbourhood, the
soil, said to rest upon quicksand, is mostly of a fertile quality.
Some special notice must here be made of a most interesting botanical station lying
within the limits of the area now under consideration. This is a plot of boggy ground about
thirty acres in extent, lying about three miles westward of the town of Penrith near the
ancient village of Newton Regny and known as Newton Regny Moss. It is rectangular in
outline, and is owned in part by the people of Newton on the one side, and by the inhabitants
of Newbiggin, a village in the adjoining parish of Dacre, on the other. A sluggish stream of
moss water of almost inky blackness running the entire length of the ground divides the en-
closure into two unequal portions ; the larger share pertains to Newton, being equal to about
22^ acres. This part has been subdivided into a number of small allotments, answering to
the number of resident proprietors, each of whom had his ' peat-pot,' separated from that
of his neighbour by a ' reaine ' or narrow strip of ground, on which the newly dug peats were
spread to dry. The supply of peaty material seems to have become exhausted, and the ' pots '
are filled well-nigh to the brim with water of the same character as that in the brook. It is
impossible to make a thorough examination : the only plan to be adopted by strangers is to
walk along by the 'reaines,' the remaining portions not being negotiable except during
seasons of exceptionally dry weather. Besides the botanical rarities presently to be mentioned
the locality has been described as the paradise of ' black-headed gulls {Larus ridibundus) snipes,
water-hens, frogs and dragonflies.' A few of the plants may be mentioned, several of which
are only to be gathered here, and those mostly of the aquatic family, viz. : * Ranunculus Lingua,
L., R. Flammula, L. (in abundance) ; Trollius europaus, L. ; Parnassia palustris, L. ; Galium
palustre var. b. elongatum (Presl.) ; Valeriana officinalis, L. (attains to quite a remarkable growth
on some of the ' reaines ') ; Menyanthes trifoliata, L. ; Veronica Anagallis, L. ; Utricularia
vulgaris, L. (very abundant and showy in August) ; Mentha sativa, L. ; Prunella vulgaris, L.
(var. alba) ; Salix fragilis, L. (often planted, but truly wild at such places as Newton Regny
Moss, Penrith. J. G. Baker, 1883) ; Epipactis palustris, Crantz ; Habenaria chloroleuca
Ridley ; Typiha latifolia, L. ; Potamogeton plantagineus, Du Croz ; * Schcenus nigricans, L. ;
* Cladium jamaicense, Crantz ; Carex teretiuscula, Good. ; * C. limosa, L. ; * C. filiformis, L. ;
C. rostrata, Stokes ; Equisetum limosum, Sm. ; * Chara polyacantha, Braun.'^
Adonis autumnalis, L., grew in large quantities in a crop of flax on a farm at Flimby in
1885, where it was associated with about an equal amount of Plantago arenaria, Waldst. and
Kit. Glaucium phceniceum, Crantz, at Derwent Tinplate Works, 1893-94. Aconitum
1 The plants to which an asterisk (*) is prefixed are found at this station only, and most of them
were recorded for the first time by the author.
86
BOTANY
Napellus, L., right bank of river Caldew, opposite to Holm Hill mansion, established many
years. Cheiranthus Cheiri, L., on the old walls of Dacre Castle, Penrith. Hesperis matronalis,
L., banks of the rivers Ellen and Roe, at Aspatria and Stockdalewrath respectively. Sisym-
brium pannonicum Jacq., Derwent Tinplate Works, and Silloth for many years past, and
seen on Workington south shore this season, 1900. Linum angustifolium, Huds., long
established at Shawk quarries, near Curthwaite, in small quantity. Trifolium incarnatum,
L., has occurred as a casual on the London and North- Western Railway near Flimby, and
subsequently on the cinder mound at Derwent Tin-plate Works, Workington. Vicia lutea,
L., on both banks of the Derwent from Seaton Mill to Camerton railway station, 1896;
also at Silloth and Skinburness, 1 900. Rubus Balfiurianus, BIox., very fine examples occur
near the farm belonging to Mr. Graham at Hawksdale, Carlisle. Rosa arvensis, Huds., in
Flimby and Aigle Gill woods, abundantly. Here also, and at Whitefield House, Overwater,
Saxifraga umbrosa, L., has multiplied exceedingly from garden waste. Caucalis latifolia, L.,
by the river Derwent, opposite to Camerton station, 1896. Lactuca muralis, Fresen,, in
the woods at Threapland Ghyll, Aspatria, the lowest station at which it has been remarked.
Lysimachia ciliata, L., ditch by the highway, nearly opposite to Monkhouse Hill farm, Seberg-
ham. Centunculus minimus, L., near Thurstonfield lough, Carlisle, where also grows Limosella
aquatica, L. Lathraa Squamaria, L., is found in the ' Riddings,' near Gatesgill village,
also near Sebergham Hall, where it is parasitical on the roots of an avenue of lime trees.
Nepeta Cataria, L., in a roadside hedge a few yards eastward of Dalemain Mill, Penrith, on the
south side of the highway. Scutellaria minor, Huds., swampy ground at Moorhouse Guards,
between Seaton and Flimby. Euphorbia Esula, L., well established on both sides of the
highway near Inglewood Bank, Penrith. Castanea sativa. Mill., two grand trees on the
river Eamont, nearly opposite Pooley Mill, on the Dalemain estate. Lilium Martagon, L.,
in the 'morel wood,' right bank of the Caldew at Holm Hill. Cokhicum autumnale, L.,
meadow by the river Ellen, on the left bank, opposite Baggrow. Butomus umbellatus, L.,
bed of the river Wampool, a little way above the bridge at Kirkbride. Catabrosa aquatica,
Beauv., near Blencowe railway station. Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum, L., hedge bank by an
occupation road connected with Millstone Moor farm, Moota, near Cockermouth. Equisetum
maximum. Lam., Flimby wood, Maryport.
It may be well to mention here that the ancient royal 'Forest of Inglewood' was
included wholly within this area. It extended from the city of Carlisle to Penrith, a distance
of eighteen miles, embracing both towns. The whole of the following parishes were within
its limits, viz. : Penrith, Edenhall, Great Salkeld, Lazonby, Hesket, Wetheral, Warwick,
St. Mary's (Carlisle), St. Cuthbert's (Carlisle), Dalston, Hutton, Skelton and Newton Regny ;
as also portions of Thursby, Sebergham, Castle Sowerby, Westward and Caldbeck. It
remained an appanage to the Crown property imtil the year 1696, when it was granted to
William Bentinck, first earl of Portland.
List of plants of more or less rarity to be found within the limits of District III. ; the
most extensive and fertile, as it is also the most highly cultivated, of the divisions which I
have adopted for the purposes of this work.
Ranunculaces Crucifer^
Clematis Vitalba L. Cheiranthus Cheiri, L.
Thahctrum Kochii, Fr. ^^,.^^,.^^ intermedia, Boreau
— flavum, L. ^^^^^^ ^^^^. ^
Adorns autumnans, L. ^^^^^ ^^^^j. l.
Ranunculus fluitans, Lam. Cochkaria Armoracia, L.
— Drouetii, Godr. jj .^ matronalis, L.
— tnchophyllus, Chaix. Sisymbrium Sophia, L.
-^f£bSs(Bab.) -,.—«., Jac,.
— Lingua, L. -O/wJacq.
He leborus viridis, L. Erysimum cheiranthoides, L.
DelphtmumAjacts, L. — perfoliatum, Crantz
Acmtitum Napellus, L. Camelina sativa, Crantz
PAPAVERACEffi Brassica Rapa, L.
Meconopsis cambrica, Vig. _ monensis, Huds.
Glaucium phceniceum, Crantz Lepidium ruderak, L.
FuMARiACE^ — Draba, L.
Neckeria lutea. Scop. Thiaspi arvense, L.
Fumaria confusa, Jord. Raphanus Raphanistrum, L.
87
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
VlOLARIE^
Viola sylvestris, Reich.
— lutea, Huds.
Caryophylle^
Dianthus Armeria, L.
— deltoides, L.
Silene conica, L.
— anglica, L.
Sagina nodosa, Fenzl.
Hypericine^
Hypericum calycinum, L.
TlLIACE^
Tilia platyphyllos, Scop.
LlNE^
Radiola Linoides, Roth.
Linum angustifolium, Huds.
Geraniace^
Geranium rotundifolium, L.
OxaRs corniculata, L.
Safindace^
Acer campestre, L.
Leguminos^
Ulex nanus, Forster
TrifoRum incamatum, L.
— striatum, L.
— resupinatum, L.
Vicia Orobus, DC.
— lutea, L.
Rosacea
Spiraa salicifolia, L.
Rubus suberectus, Anders.
— affinis, W. y N.
— incurvatus, Bab.
— rhamnifolius, W. y N.
— leucostachys, Schleich.
— infestus, Weihe
— Balfourianus, Blox.
Fragaria elatior, Ehrh.
Potentilla norvegica, L.
Rosa involuta, Sm.
6. Sabini, Woods
— canina, L.
a. lutetiana (Leman)
c. sphasrica (Gren.)
e. dumalis (Bechst.)
i. urbica (Leman)
J. dumetorum (Thuill.)
— glauca, Vill.
3. subcristata (Baker)
e. coriifolia (Fr.)
g. Watsoni (Baker)
— arvensis, Huds.
Pyrus communis, L.
— pinnatifida, Ehrh.
Crataegus Oxyacantha, L.
d. monogyna (Jacq.)
Saxifrages
Saxifraga umbrosa, L.
— stellaris, L.
Ribes rubrum, L.
Riies Gnsittlaria, L.
b. Uva-crispa, L.
Droseracea
Drosera anglica, Huds.
— intermedia, Hayne
Halo rages
Hippuris vulgaris, L.
Myriophyllum spicatum, L.
Callitriche verna, L.
— hamulata, Kuetz.
Onagraries
Epilobium obscurum, Schreb.
Umbellifers
Caucalis latifolia, L.
— nodosa. Scop.
Rubiaces
Galium erectum, Huds.
DiPSACES
Dipsacus sylvestris, Huds.
Composite
Erigeron acre, L.
Filago minima, Fr.
AnaphaUs margaritacea, Benth. W Hook. fils.
Gnaphalium sylvaticum, L.
Pulicaria dysenterica, Gasrtn.
Matricaria Chamomilla, L.
Onopordon Acanthium, L.
Crepis paludosa, Moench
Centaurea Solstitialis, L.
Cichorium Intybus, L.
Leontodon hirtus, L.
— hispidus, L.
Lactuca muralis, Fresen.
Campanulaces
Lobelia Dortmanna, L.
Campanula rapunculoides, L.
— glomerata, L.
Ericaces
Andromeda Polifolia, L.
Pyrola minor, L.
— media, Sw.
Primulaces
Lysimachia ctliata, L.
— Nummularia, L.
Centunculus minimus, L.
Gentianes
Erythrjea littoralis, Fr.
— pulchella, Fr.
Polemoniaces
Polemonium coeruleum, L.
BORAGINES
Cynoglossum officinale, L.
Symphytum tuberosum, L.
Myosotis collina, HofFm.
CONVOLVULACEJE
Convolvulus arvensis, L.
SCROPHULARINS
Verbascum Blattaria, L.
Scrophularia aquatica, L.
Limosella aquatica, L.
88
BOTANY
Veronica montana, L.
— scutellata, L.
Rhinanthus major, Ehrh.
Orobanchace^
Orobanche elatior, Sutton
Lathrxa Squamaria, L.
Lentibulariea
Utricularia minor, L.
— intermedia, Hayne
Labiate
Mentha rotundifolia, Huds.
— piperita, Huds,
— hirsuta, Huds.
b. subglabra, Baker
— sativa, L.
b. paludosa. Baker
— gentilis, L.
Calamintha arvensis. Lam.
Nepeta Cataria, L.
Scutellaria minor, Huds.
Marrubium vulgare, L.
Galeopsis versicolor, Curt.
Plantagine^
Plantagp arenaria, Waldst. y Kit.
CHENOPODIACEffi
Chenopodium botryoides, Sm. [? ?]
Atriplex hastata, L.
— Babingtonii, Woods
PoLYGONACE*
Polygonum minus, Huds.
Rumex sanguineus, L.
b. viridis (Sibth.).
— Hydrolapathum, Huds.
EuPHOREIACE^
Euphorbia Esula, L.
— Cyfaristias, L.
— exigua, L.
CuPULIFERiE
Carpinus Betulus, L.
Castanea sativa. Mill.
Salicine^
Salix repens, L.
— phylicifolia, L.
Populus nigra, L.
Conifers
Juniperus nana, Willd.
Taxus baccata, L.
Hydrocharide^
Elodea canadensis, Michx.
Orchide^
Neottia Nidus-avis, Rich.
Epipactis palustris, Crantz
Orchis ustulata, L.
— incarnata, L.
Habenaria albida, R. Br.
— viridis, R. Br.
— chloroleuca, Ridley
LiLIACEA
Ruscus acukatus, L.
Allium Scorodoprasum, L.
— vineale, L.
— oleraceum, L.
Lilium Martagpn, L.
Gagea fascicularis, Salisb.
Colchicum autumnale, L.
Paris quadrifolia, L.
JUNCACE«
Juncus compressus, Jacq.
— maritimus. Lam.
— Gerardi, Loisel.
— glaucus, Ehrh.
Luzula maxima, DC.
— erecta, Desv.
b. congesta, Koch
Sparganium simplex, Huds.
— minimum, Fr.
Alismace^
Alisma ranunculoides, L.
Butomus umbellatus, L.
Naiadace^
Potamogeton plantagineus, Du Croz.
— densus L.
— crispus, L.
— polygonifolius, Pourr.
Zannichellia palustris, L.
Cyperace^
Eleocharis acicularis, R. Br.
Scirpus fluitans, L.
— setaceus, L.
— rufus, Schrad.
— sylvaticus, L.
Schoenus nigricans, L.
Cladium jamaicense, Crantz
Carex dioica, L.
— disticha, Huds.
— vulpina, L.
— acuta, L.
— Goodenowii, J. Gay
— limosa, L.
— laevigata, Sm.
— flava, L.
c. CEderi, Retz.
— filiformis, L.
— vesicaria, L.
Gramine^
Setaria viridis, Beauv.
Phalaris canariensis, L.
Milium efFusum, L.
Polypogon monspeliensis, Desf.
jipera Spica-venti, Beauv.
Avena fatua, L.
Sesleria coerulea, Ard.
Cynosurus echinatus, L.
Catabrosa aquatica, Beauv.
Melica nutans, L.
Poa alpina, L.
Glyceria plicata, Fr.
— distans, Wahlenb.
Festuca sylvatica, Vill.
Bromus giganteus, L.
Lolium Rnicola, Sonder.
— temulentum, L.
b. arvense (With.)
FiLICES
Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum, L.
Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh.
b. dentata (Hook.)
89
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Polystichum lobatum, Presl. Lycopodiace^
var. aculeatum, Syme Lycopodium Sekgo, L.
— angulare, Presl. — clavatum, L.
Lastrea Filix-mas, Presl.
b. affinis, Bab. Selaginellace^
c. paleacea, Moore Selaginella selaginoides, Gray
— dilatata, Presl.
d. coUina, Moore Charace^
Phegopteris calcarea, Fee ^hara fragilis, Desv.
Equisetace^ — polyacantha, Braun.
Equisetum maximum, Lam. — vulgaris, L.
— sylvaticum, L. Nitella flexilis, Agardh
— hyemale, L. — opaca, Agardh
District IV
This area is bounded on the south by the river Eden throughout its course in Cumberland,
dividing it from District III. until its junction with the Eamont near Dolphenby ; thence
for a short distance to a little beyond Culgaith, wfhere the boundary diverges to the north-
eastward as far as the sources of the river Tees under Cross Fell ; the course of that river is
followed until the mouth of Crookburn Beck is reached at the extreme south-east corner of
Cumberland. Northward from this the boundary follows along the beck to its source, and
beyond until Killhope Moor is reached. The adjoining county here is Durham. From this
point in a zigzag line the boundary follows the watershed of the Pennine range ' as Heaven
water deals ' until it reaches the river Irthing at Gilsland, which constitutes the line of de-
markation between Cumberland and Northumberland, right up to its source ; a little way
beyond which the head of the Kershope Burn is reached at the northern extremity of the
county. The remaining boundary on the north-western side is much less complicated.
Commencing at Kershope Head it follows the course of the burn to its junction with the river
Liddle, between Cumberland and Roxburghshire. From this point the latter forms the line
of separation between Cumberland and Dumfries, until a little below where it falls into the
Esk. Here an arbitrary line known as the Scots' Dike, running due westward for a short
distance until it abuts upon the river Sark, along which stream the boundary runs to its con-
fluence with the head waters of the Solway Firth.
The Pennine range runs along the eastern verge of this area, from Cross Fell (2,930 feet)
through a gradually decreasing series of summits, including Cold Fell (2,039 f^^*) Slighty Crag
(1,702 feet) and Christenbury Crag (1,598 feet), with others of inferior altitude. The district
is extremely well-watered. Apart from the rivers Eden, Esk and Liddle on tlie outskirts, we
find the Raven and Croglin waters and the Irthing, with its tributaries the Gelt, Kingwater
and Cambeck. The Black and White Lyne streams, which with the Bailey water from
Bewcastle unite to form the Lyne river, discharge into the Esk below Longtown. In the
Alston district, on the east of the Pennines, the South Tyne and the Tees have their sources,
and are the aggregate of innumerable becks or burns which flow from those hills. The hills
in their geological formation form quite a contrast to their mightier brethren in the south-west
of the county, consisting of strata of carboniferous rocks in the form of shales, sandstones and
grits, intermixed with beds of limestone never of any great thickness. In the lower valleys of
the Eden, Esk, Liddle and Lyne, the New Red Sandstone rocks predominate, and are extensively
quarried for builders' purposes both here and in Dumfriesshire.
The Alston district is highly metalliferous, and lead mines, which are tolerably numerous,
have been worked from an early period of our history, as far back as the reign of Henry II.
and were then known as the mines of ' Karliol.' King John sent thither for lead to repair
some of his castles in the south of England. As many as fifty mines are reported to have been
actively worked at different times. Other ores have also been worked.
In the neighbourhood of Tindall Fell and Brampton, Blenkinship and other places,
collieries and limeworks are numerous.
It will thus be seen that this area has features of its own so characteristic that Mr. J. G.
Baker, who spent a holiday some years ago at Alston (1887) compares it to a slice of Durham
or north Yorkshire thrust into Cumberland. He also reports that certain montane species of
plants are found here at a somewhat greater altitude than in either of those adjoining counties.
It may be mentioned that this area, interesting as it may seem, has been much less
diligently explored in a botanical sense than the remaining portions of the county, and the
90
BOTANY
results therefore are but meagre and incomplete. Would that some zealous worker, with
youth on his side, would undertake its further exploration and development.
The following are the most noteworthy species recorded from this area as at present
known, viz. : Ranunculus fluttam^ Lam., a flore pleno variety, occurs in the river Eden, near
Carlisle ; the type is also reported from the river Cairn, near Heads Nook ; Berberis vulgaris,
L., near Rosehill, Gilsland, in hedgerows as a substitute for Cratagus Oxyacantha ; Cheiranthus
Cheiri, L., walls of Lanercost Priory ; Draba muralis, L., nursery grounds a mile north of
Carlisle ; Lhlaspi alpestre, L., everywhere common about the lead mines at Alston, along with
Arenaria verna, L. (J. G. Baker) ; Althaa officinalis, L., on the cliffs at RockclifFe ; Radiola
Limides, Roth, near Long Meg, Little Salkeld ; Rhamnus catharticus, L., hill near Gilsland ;
Vicia Orobus, DC, 'Circa Great Salkeld copiose, sed prassertim apud Blencarn, nostratibus
"Horse Pease,"' Bishop Nicolson's MS. 1690 ; Rubus saxatilis,L.,\ower Nent Force, Tynehead,
on limestone rocks, J. G. Baker ; Rubus Chamamorus, L., Christenbury Crags, Knoutberry Fell,
over Nenthead ; Rosa spimsissima, L., Westlinton to Scaleby and round Gamblesby under
Cross Fell ; R. mollis, Sm., very fine about the outskirts of Sol way Moss to Netherby Moat,
Penton, etc. ; R. tomentosa, var. d. scabriuscula (Sm.), by the river Irthing beneath Burdoswald ;
Sedum villosum, L., Hartside Fell (Ray) ; Drosera intermedia, Hayne, abundant on Solway
Moss ; Epilobium alpinum, L., springs at the east end of Cross Fell, over the Cashwell mine
(600 to 700 yards) J. G. Baker ; Carum verticillatum, Koch, Kingmoor, northward of
Carlisle ; Caucalis nodosa, Scop., gravel bed on the river Eden, opposite Grinsdale village,
below Carlisle, associated there with Asperula arvensis, L. ; Valeriana pyrenaica, L., in a wood
between Oakbank Farm, Longtown, and Solway Moss in great plenty ; Erigeron acre, L., on
an old wall at Gelt woods, Brampton ; Cnicus heterophyllus, Willd., by the Solport burn, near
its junction with the river Lyne ; Vaccinium uliginosum, L., at Gamblesby, six miles from
Penrith (Ray) ; Centunculus minimus, L., Kingmoor, over Carlisle ; Mentha rotundifolia, Huds.,
waste ground east of Rockcliffe station ; Galeopsis versicolor. Curt., near Cumwhitton ; Myrica
Gale, L., Solway Moss, Longtown ; Salix purpurea, L., banks of the Esk, Longtown ; S. rubra,
Huds., by Brunstock Beck, near Drawdykes Castle ; Elodea canadensis Mich., pool by the
river Eden, a little way above Lazonby Bridge ; Habenaria conopsea, Benth., extremely fine
in meadows from Soalmaine to Kirkcambeck ; Allium Schoenoprasum, L., near Edward the
Sixth's wall at Wall Town ; near Gilsland on the Roman Wall ; Butomus umbellatus, L.,
associated with Elodea canadensis, near Lazonby Bridge ; Rynchospora alba, Vahl., Bolton Fell
and other northern moors ; Carex pendula, Huds., Lyneside woods, below Racks Bridge ;
also by the Liddle at Penton Linns, where also C remota, L., abounds ; C. vulpina, L., estuary
of river Eden, near RockclifFe ; Deschampsia Jlexuosa, Trin., very abimdant about the edges of
the Scaleby and other northern peat mosses ; Avena pratensis, L., limestone rocks near Ashgill
Force, Alston ; Cryptogramma crispa, R. Br., very luxuriant on Cross Fell ; Phegopteris Dryop-
teris. Fee., Geltside woods, near Brampton ; Botrychium Lunaria, Sw., ' fields 'twixti Glassenby
and Gamelsby,' Bishop Nicolson, 1 690 ; Equisetum maximum. Lam., luxuriant in woods and
hedgerows by the river Cambeck ; E. variegatum, Schleich., on rocks by river Irthing near
Gilsland Spa ; Selaginella selaginoides. Gray, limestone of High Mains and Windy Brow,
Alston.
List of plants of more or less rarity to be found in Division IV. being the most northern
portion of the county, the botany of which has been less carefully investigated than the
remaining divisions, principally owing to the lack of resident students of the science : —
Ranunculace^ Fumariace«
Thalictrum collinum, Wallr. Neckeria lutea. Scop.
— flavum, L.
Ranunculus fluitans. Lam. Crucifer^
— sardous, Crantz Cheiranthus Cheiri, L.
Trollius europaeus, L. Nasturtium palustre, DC.
Aquilegia vulgaris, L. Arabis hirsuta, Scop.
Aconitum Nafellus, L. Draba muralis, L.
T, Cardamine amara, L.
Berberide* Cochlearia alpina, H. C. Wats.
Berbens vulgaris, L. _ j^^^^^i^ l.
NYMPHa:ACE« Lepidium latifolium, L.
Nymphaea lutea, L. Thlaspi alpestre, L.
Papaverace;e Teesdalia nudicaulis, R. Br.
Papaver Argemone, L. Raphanus Raphanistrum, L.
91
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Resedace^
Reseda Luteola, L.
VlOLARIE^
Viola odorata, L.
f. alba (Lange)
— lutea, Huds.
PoLYGALE^
Polygala serpyllacea;, Weihe
Caryophylle«
Saponaria Vaccaria, L.
Stellaria nemorum, L.
Arenaria verna, L.
— serpyllifolia, L.
c. leptoclados (Guss.)
Sagina nodosa, Fenzl.
Hypericins^
Hypericum humifusum, L.
— hirsutum, L.
Malvace^
Althaea officinalis, L.
Malva rotundifolia, L.
LiNEiE
Radiola Linoides, Roth.
Linum catharticum, L.
Geraniace^
Geranium phiemn, L.
— sylvaticum, L.
— pusillum, L.
— lucidum, L.
Erodium cicutarium, L'Herit.
Rhamne^
Rhamnus catharticus, L.
Leguminos^
Genista anglica, L.
Ulex Gallii, Planch.
Ononis spinosa, L.
Medkagp sativa, L.
Melilotus officinalis. Lam.
Ornithopus perpusillus, L.
Vicia Orobus, DC.
— sativa, L.
Rosace:e
Prunus domestka L.
Rubus fissus, Lindl.
— affinis, W. y N.
— rhamnifolius, W. y N.
— villicaulis (sp. collect.)
— Koehleri (sp. collect.)
— infestus, Weihe
— caesius, L.
— saxatilis, L.
— Chamaemorus, L.
Rosa pimpinellifolia, L.
f. spinosissima (L.)
— involuta, Sm.
b. Sabini (Woods)
— mollis, Sm. = R. villosa, L.
— tomentosa, Sm.
d. scabriuscula (Sm.)
— rubiginosa, L.
— arvensis, Huds.
Saxifragacea
Saxifraga stellaris, L.
— aizoides, L.
— hypnoides, L.
Ribes Grossularia, L.
— rubrum, L.
— nigrum, L.
Crassulacea
Sedum Rhodiola, DC.
— villosum, L.
— album, L.
— anglicum, Huds.
Sempervivum tectorum, L.
Droserace^
Drosera anglica, Huds.
— intermedia, Hayne
Halorage^
Hippuris vulgaris, L.
Callitriche hamulata, Kuetz.
Lythrarie^
Peplis Portula, L.
Onagrarie^
Circaea alpina, L.
Umbellifer^
Apium nodiflorum, Reichb. fils.
Carum verticillatum, Koch
Pimpinella Saxifraga, L.
Chaerophyllum temulum, L.
Scandix Pecten- Veneris, L.
Peucedanum Ostruthium, Koch
Daucus Carota, L.
Caucalis latifolia, L.
— nodosa, Scop.
Caprifoliace^
Sambucus Ebulus, L.
Rubiace^
Galium boreale, L.
— MoUugo, L.
— sylvestre, Poll.
Asperula arvensis, L.
Valeriane^
Valeriana pyrenaica, L.
Dipsace^
Scabiosa Columbaria, L.
Composite
Aster Tripolium, L.
Erigeron acre, L.
Filago minima, Fr.
Antennaria dioica, R, Br.
Gnaphalium sylvaticum, L.
Pulicaria dysenterica, Gaert.
Bidens cernua, L.
b. radiata, Sond.
Artemisia Absinthium, L.
Doronicum Pardalianches, L.
Senecio erucaefolius, L.
— Saracenicus, L.
Arctium intermedium, Lange
Cnicus heterophyllus, Willd.
Mariana lactea. Hill
92
BOTANY
Serratula tinctoria, L.
Centaurea Scabiosa, L.
— Cyanus, L.
Crepis paludosa, Moench
Hieracium caesium, Fr.
— vulgatum, Fr.
— corymbosum, Fr.
— crocatum, Fr.
— boreale, Fr.
Leontodon hispidus, L.
Lactuca muralis, Fresen.
Tragopogon pratense, L.
b. minus, Mill.
Camfanulace^
Jasione montana, L.
Campanula glomerata, L.
— latifolia, L.
Vacciniace^
Oxycoccus quadripetala, Gilib.
Vaccinium uliginosum, L.
Schollera oxycoccus. Roth.
Ericace^
Andromeda Polifolia, L.
Pyrola media, Sw.
— minor, L.
Primulace^
Lysimachia nemorum, L.
Glaux maritima, L.
Centunculus minimus, L.
Gentiane^
Gentiana Amarella, L.
Menyanthes trifoliata, L.
BoRAGINE^
Symphytum officinale, L.
— tuberosum, L.
Borago officinalis, L.
Lycopsis arvensis, L.
Myosotis cespitosa, F. Schultz.
— versicolor, Reichb.
Lithospermum arvense, L.
CoNVOLVULACE^
Volvulus sepium, Jung.
SoLANACE^
Solanum Dulcamara, L.
Hyoscyamus niger, L.
SCR0PHULARINE«
Linaria Cymbalaria, Mill.
— vulgaris. Mill.
Scrophularia aquatica, L.
— nodosa, L.
Mimulus luteus, L.
Veronica hederifolia, L.
— persica, Poir
— Tournefortii, Gmel.
— montana, L.
— scutellata, L.
Rhinanthus major, Ehrh.
Melampyrum pratense, L.
var. d. montanum (Johnst.)
Lentibularie^
Utricularia intermedia, Hayne
Verbenace^
Verbena officinalis, L.
Labiate
Mentha rotundifolia, Huds,
— piperita, Huds.
— sativa, L.
b. paludosa (Sole)
Origanum vulgare, L.
Calamintha Clinopodium, Spenn.
Galeopsis versicolor. Curt.
Lamium maculatum, L.
Plantagine«
Flantago maritima, L.
— Coronopus. L.
Chenopodiace^
Chenopodium album, L.
a. incanum, Moq.
b. viride, Syme
Atriplex littoralis, L.
— deltoidea, Bab.
Salicornia herbacea, L.
Polygonace^
Polygonum Hydropiper, L.
— lapathifolium, L.
— amphibium, L.
b. terrestre. Leers
Thymelaacea
Daphne Laureola, L.
EuPHORBIACEa:
Euphorbia Peplus, L.
Urticace^
Humulus Lupulus, L.
Myricace^
Myrica Gale, L.
CUPULIFER^
Betula verrucosa, Ehrh.
— pubescens, Ehrh.
Carpinus Betulus, L.
Castanea sativa. Mill.
Salicine^
Salix alba, L.
— aurita, L.
— repens, L.
— phylicifolia, L.
— purpurea, L.
X viminalis (rubra, Huds.)
Populus tremula, L.
— alba, L.
— nigra, L.
Hydrocharide^
Elodea canadensis, Michx.
Orchide^
Listera cordata, R. Br.
Goodyera repens, R. Br.
Cephalanthera ensifolia. Rich.
Epipactis latifolia. All.
Orchis ustulata, L.
— latifolia, L.
Habenaria conopsea, Benth,
— bifolia, R. Br.
— chloroleuca, Ridley
Amaryllide*
Galanthus nivalis, L.
93
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
LlLIACE^
Allium Scorodoprasum, L.
— vineale, L.
— Schoenoprasum, L.
Narthecium ossifragum, Huds.
JUNCACE^
Juncus Gerardi, Loisel.
— lamprocarpus, Ehrh.
— supinus, Moench
— triglumis, L.
Typhace^
Typha latifolia, L.
Aroide^
Arum maculatum, L.
Alismace^
Butomus umbellatus, L.
Naiadace^
Triglochin palustre, L.
— maritimum, L.
Potamogeton polygonifolius, Pourr.
— heterophyllus, Schreb.
— praelongus, Wulf.
— crispus, L.
— densus, L.
Cyperace^
Eleocharis palustris, R. Br.
Scirpus caespitosus, L.
— setaceus, L.
Rhyncospora alba, Vahl.
Carex dioica, L.
— vulpina, L.
— reraota, L.
— curta, Good
— irrigua, Hoppe
— limosa, L.
— pallescens, L.
Carex pendula, Huds,
— hirta, L.
— acuta, L.
— rigida, Good
Gramine^
Alopecurus pratensis, L.
Milium efFusum, L.
Agrostis canina, L.
Deschampsia flexuosa, Trin.
Avena pratensis, L.
Sieglingia decumbens, Bernh.
Melica nutans, L.
Poa nemoralis, L.
Glyceria plicata, Fr.
Festuca Myuros, L.
— elatior, L.
— fallax, ThuiU.
Brachypodium gracile, Beauv.
Agropyron caninum, Beauv.
FiLICES
Cryptogramme crispa, R. Br.
Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum, L.
— viride, Huds.
Athyrium Filix-foemina, Roth.
Polystichum lobatum, Presl.
Lastrea dilatata, Presl.
Phegopteris Dryopteris, F6e.
Botrychium Lunaria, Sw.
Equisetace^
Equisetum maximum. Lam.
— sylvaticum, L.
— palustre, L.
— variegatum, Schleich.
Lycopodiace^
Lycopodium Selago, L.
— alpinum, L.
Selaginellace^
Selaginella selaginoides. Gray
MOSSES {Musci)
As most readers are aware, Cumberland can claim the doubtful
privilege of possessing the wettest spot in the British Islands. And in
the combination within a small geographical area, of elevation, mildness,
and, as regards the western portion of the county, atmospheric humidity,
we have conditions essential to the occurrence of a rich and interesting
moss-flora.
Elevation alone, however, when it is represented by bleak moorland
is not necessarily a favourable condition. Of this we have our share in
Cumberland, but there is also a large area of highly elevated rock which
affords habitats for arctic, or semi-arctic, species of mosses.
It may be well to remark here that the British moss-flora is con-
nected for the most part with that of Scandinavia ; and in the mountains
94
BOTANY
of Norway one may see at their best mosses that seem only just able
to maintain a foothold in our British hills. The moss-flora of the
British Islands is not exclusively of a northern type, but has also affinities
with that of more genial climes, species which may be called Mediter-
ranean occurring here and there in our islands, especially, as might be
expected, at their southern and western extremities, and in the mild
districts of the west of Cumberland we occasionally come across mosses
that are usually associated with the southern types.
This is also the case with the Hepaticae, and if the reader has the
opportunity of referring to Mr. W. H. Pearson's splendid work upon the
Hepaticae of the British Isles he will see (under Lejeuneae especially) that
several of the species which are commonly found in the south of Ireland
have also been observed at Lodore, where in addition to humidity and
mildness of climate there exists another essential of a rich moss-vegetation,
viz. shelter. It is in such places as Lodore, sheltered from strong winds,
that mosses and Hepaticae are found in the greatest luxuriance all the
world over.^
There may be some real affinity between the causes which produced
the peculiar moss-flora of the south of Ireland and, in its degree, that of
Lodore. The matter is one of great interest whether from a geological
or botanical point of view, and the student of the mosses of Cumberland
will not fail to keep it in mind.
The essentials of atmospheric humidity, mildness and elevation
being prevalent in a considerable portion of Cumberland, one is prepared
to expect a long list of county records. The writer however is not
aware of one having been published ; and, labouring under the disadvan-
tage of not living in the county, he does not feel that he has sufficient
data to hand to warrant his attempting to compile a complete list.
What the student of our mosses most wants to know is the occurrence
of rare and interesting species. Some that would be thus designated have
been found by the writer in Cumberland, and he is also aware of interesting
finds having been made by other bryologists. He therefore proposes to
enumerate these. There must of necessity be many omissions due to
the difficulty stated above, but enough will be recorded to show that
Cumberland must rank high amongst the counties of England for wealth
of mosses, and enough omitted to stimulate future observers to fill up gaps
in the list of rare species.
Sphagnacece. In the present transition stage through which the
determination of these mosses appears to be passing, it might be hazardous
for any but an expert to enumerate varieties. It must suffice then to
remark that the county is rich in Sphagna, especially in that portion
which lies to the north of Wigton and borders on the Solway. Indeed
there are probably few districts in England in which a greater wealth of
these mosses is to be found. The extensive peat bogs in the region
1 For further remarks both on the occurrence of some southern types of mosses in our British
Islands, and on that of shelter as a condition of luxuriance in moss-vegetation, the reader might consult
two very interesting articles by the late Dr. Spruce in the Journal of Botany, February and March, 1887.
95
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
indicated afford a splendid field for exploration by the student of these
plants.
On the sandstone in the north of the county several rather uncommon
mosses occur, amongst which may be mentioned Tetraphis Browniana,
Grev., Brachyodus trichodes, Fiirnr., Dicranella crispa, Schp., Campylostelium
saxicola, B. & S., and Weisia tenuis, C. M. They mostly flourish in and
about the quarries.
Diphyscium foliosum, /8 acutifolium, Ldb.
Mr. H. N. Dixon has found this rather
curious variety at Wastdak
Cynodontium polycarpum, Schp. Lodore.
Not uncommon in the Lake district about
rocks and crags
Dicranella curvata, Schp. Ennerdale. Another
of Mr. Dixon's discoveries. A rare species
Dicranum uncinatum, C. M. Luxuriant on
shaded granite rocks in Eskdale
Grimmia incurva, Schwgr. (G. contorta, Schp.).
Rare. Near the summit of Sea Fell Pike,
on granite
— subsquarrosa, Wils. Rocks near the lake
at Friar's Crag, Keswick. Common in
the Lake district on rocks near water
— decipiens, Ldb. Eskdale and Borroivdale.
Not common in the Lake district. The
var. robusta, Ferg., occurs in Eskdale and
doubtless elsewhere in the district, being
partial to rocks near water
— Hartmani, Schp. Rocks and walls
— ovata, Schwgr. Rare in Britain. Rocks
in river Duddon, but poor specimens
— montana, B. & S. Rocks at Braithwaite.
Not common
— elongata, Kaulf. One of the rarest British
mosses. As found in our islands this
species is the reverse of 'elongate.' It
occurs in the Clova mountains of Scotland
and on the mountains between Grassmoor
and Thornthwaite in Cumberland, being
not uncommon in the latter district, but
difficult to recognize amongst the other
Grimmiae with which it is associated
Rhacomitrium ellipticum, B. & S. Not com-
mon. Rocks and crags. The other
British species of the genus are all found
more or less plentifully in the county
Coscinodon cribrosus, Spr. Found locally, and
beautifully fertile, about Bassenthwaite on
dry walls and rocks
Glyphomitrium Daviesii, Brid. Borroivdale.
Rare. Dr. Carrington and W, H.
Pearson, 1884
Hedwigia imberbis, Spr. Dry rocks. Butter-
mere, and doubtless elsewhere in Cumber-
land
Pottia Heimii, FUrnr. A coast moss. Bow-
ness-on-Solway and Ravenglass
Barbula inclinata, Schw. On banks of sandy
mud, Bowness-on-Solway
Eucalypta ciliata, Hoffm. Honister Crag.
W. B. Waterfall, 1885
Zygodon Stirtoni, Schp. Occasionally on lime-
stone rocks and walls at Isel near Cocker-
mouth
Ulota calvescens, Schp. Reputed to have been
found at Lodore — a very probable locality
for it. The writer has found it on the
west coast of Scotland, and abundantly
at its headquarters at Killarney, in the
south-west of Ireland. It is to be hoped
that its occurrence at Lodore may be
established, and that at the same time
another link in the apparent bryological
connection between Killarney and the
famous cascade near Keswick be forged.
This beautiful moss is readily known by
its smooth calyptra terminating the long
seta which commonly grows out from the
tuft of moss at some unusual angle. (Ulota
Ludwigii, Brid. and U. Drummondii,
Brid., ought also to be sought for about
Lodore. U. Hutchinsiae, Hamm., is a
moss of the rocks and walls, and has been
found in Westmorland. The other species
of the genus are common in Cumber-
land)
Orthotrichum cupulatum, Hoffm, On the
limestone above Plumbland
— Sprucei, Mont. On trees by river Ellen,
near the last named place
— tenellum, Bruch. Westnewton, on elders
— pulchellum, Bruch. This pretty little
moss is not uncommon in the county,
particularly on elders and twigs in hedges
CEdipodium Griffithianum, Schwg. In rock
crevices on the higher mountains
Aulacomnion androgynum, Schwgr. On
peaty soil in bank by road, Bowness-on-
Solway
Bartramia Halleriana, Hedw. A beautiful
species found occasionally on rocks in
ravines and cascades. Found also in
Tasmania
Philonotis capillaris, Ldb. Esk Hause ; H. W.
Dixon, 1895
Bryum Marratii, Wils. Sandhills at Drigg.
Rev. A. Ley
96
BOTANY
Bryum Duvallii, Voit. Boggy places, Lorton rocks. It has also been found in north
Vaky and doubtless elsewhere Wales, near the coast
Mnium orthorrhynchum, B. & S. Lodore, Hypnum callichroum, Brid. Shaded rocks at
Fine, but sterile Lodore. Fertile
Cryphcea heteromalla, Mohr. Bassenthwaite, — crista-castrensis, L. This lovely species
on trees is not uncommon in the woods about
Habrodon Notarisii, Schp. Bassenthwaite^ trees. Keswick
Not uncommon in the Lake district, — eugyrium, Schp. Rare. Rocks in the
Usually more plentiful on sycamores cascade at Lodore, where the var. Mac-
Leptodon Smithii, Mohr. One of the most in- kayi, Schp. is abundant, as elsewhere in
terestingofour Cumberland mosses, being similar habitats. The type, which may
usually found only in the south of Eng- easilybemistakenforaformofH. palustre,
land, on trees. Lodore. G. Stabler, 1 88 1 L., bears very little resemblance to the
Thuidium delicatulum. Mitt. Fine and variety which has claims to rank as a
abundant at Lodore. Fertile distinct species
Hypnum demissum. Discovered at Lodore by — micans, Wils. Said on good authority to
Messrs. Carrington and Pearson, the occur in Borrowdale. This species is
latter of whom informed the writer of its associated with H. demissum in the
occurrence there in 1884. This is a Killarney district of the south of Ireland
rare moss, and it is worthy of note in and occurs in similar habitats, namely on
connection with what was said above that damp rocks, usually in shade
this species is more or less abundant at Hylocomium umbratum, B. & S. Plentiful
Killarney, where it grows upon damp in woods at Lodore and Thornthwaite
The neighbouring county of Westmorland has been fortunate in
possessing several resident bryologists of repute, and their observations,
extending over many years, have resulted in the publication in 1899, by
Mr, G. Stabler of Levens, of a list of county records the wealth of
which is probably not surpassed by that of any other county in England.
Students are recommended to study the list of Westmorland species, the
majority of which may be expected to be found in Cumberland.
LIVERWORTS {Hepaticce)
The writer of the above notes upon the Musci is unable to supply
detailed information upon the Hepatics of the county, and as no one has
been found to undertake the work, he would suggest that students of
these fascinating plants refer to Mr. W. H. Pearson's splendid work upon
the Hepaticas of the British Isles, just about to be completed (all parts
will be out, I believe, about February, 1902). In it the author gives
full lists of localities for the species, and the botanist will be interested to
note how large a number, including many rare species, have been found
by Mr. Pearson himself, in conjunction with Dr. Carrington, in Cumber-
land. The publication of this very complete work should give a fresh
stimulus to the study of the British Hepaticas. They were always
fascinating to the bryologist, but the scarcity of satisfactory literature
made the study too difficult. The Hepaticae of Cumberland, perhaps
even more than the Musci, will fully repay further research.
97 H
ZOOLOGY
MOLLUSCS
Although there are but few published lists for this county, so well
has Capt, Farrer in especial worked the district^ that no less than 93
species have been recorded out of a total of 139 for the whole of the
British Islands.
One other species, the scarce and local Vertigo moulinsiana, was
chronicled but subsequently withdrawn by Capt. Farrer as wanting con-
firmation, though since it occurs quite as far north in Ireland, there is no
inherent improbability in its also living in the Lake district.
No southern species is of course to be met with, and though Capt.
Farrer tried to establish a colony of Helicella cantiana near Bassenthwaite,
the experiment did not succeed. A colony of Helix lucorum from Italy,
on the other hand, has thriven.
Several northern forms, such as Acanthinula lamellata and Vnio
margaritifer, are present.
The common garden snail {Helix aspersd) is curiously scarce in the
county as a whole, especially in the inland parts, and some common fresh-
water forms, like Limnaa auricularia, L. stagnalis, Planorbis corneus^ and
both species of Vivipara, are absent altogether.
A. GASTROPODA
I. PULMONATA
a. Stylommatophora
F^r.
Bassenfell,
Ravenstone,
Bassen-
Bassen-
Uldale ;
Testacella maugei,
thwaite
— haliotidea, Drap.
thwaite
Limax maximus, Linn.
— Jlavus, Linn. Bassenthwaite :
Keswick
— arborum, Bouch.-Chant.
Agriolimax agrestis (Linn.)
— lavis (Mull.)
Amalia sowerbii (F^r.). Keswick; Braith-
waite ; Bassenthwaite
— g^g"^" (Drap.). Buttermere ; Rosthwaite ;
Keswick ; Bassenthwaite
Vitrina pelkcida (Miill.)
1 Joum. Conch., vol. viii. p. 152, and Science Gossip (new series), vol. i,
Miss Donald, Tram. CumberU. Assoc, vols. vii. p. 153, and xi. p. 150.
99
V'ttrea crystallina (Milll.)
— lucida (Drap.). Keswick ; Penrith
— alliaria (Miller). Bassenthwaite
— glabra (Brit. Auct.). Keswick ; Bassen-
thwaite ; Drigg ; Allonby
— cellaria (Mtlll.)
— nitidula (Drap.)
— pura (Aid.)
— radiatula (Aid.)
— excavata (Bean)
— nitida (Mtill.)
— fulva (Mull.)
Arion ater (Linn.)
— hortensis, Fdr.
— circumscriptus, John.
— intermedius, Norni.
— subfuscus (Drap.)
Punctum pygmaum (Drap.)
pp. 58, 192. Cf. alsQ
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Pyramidula rupestris (Drap.)
— rotundata (MuU.)
Helkella virgata (Da C). Silloth ; Allonby ;
Crosscannonby ; Ravenglass
— itala{Lmn.). Ravenglass [dead specimens]
— caperata (Mont.). Cotehill, near Carlisle ;
Silloth ; Blaithwaite ; Bassenthwaite
[where a reversed example was also taken]
— harhara (Linn.). Silloth (?) ; St. Bees ;
Seascale ; Drigg ; Ravenglass
Hygromia fusca (Mont.). Caldbeck ; Bassen-
thwaite ; Alston
— granulata (Aid.). Corby ; Wetheral ;
Keswick ; Piel Wyke, Bassenthwaite
— hispida (Linn.)
— rufescens (Penn.)
Acanthinula acukata (MflU.)
— lamellata (JefE). Wreay ; Bothel ; Bas-
senthwaite ; Keswick ; Lodore Falls
Vallonia pukhella (Milll.). Bassenthwaite ;
Keswick ; Penrith ; Gelt Woods, near
Carlisle
— arhustorum (Linn.)
Helix aspersa, MuU. Uncommon : more
plentiful on the coast than inland,
where it has so far been met with in
the Lake district only at Bassenthwaite,
Keswick, Buttermere and Bowness, it
occurs at Carlisle, and is common about
Maryport, Whitehaven, Ennerdale,
Drigg and Calder Bridge
— nemoralis, Linn.
— hortemis, Mtill.
Buliminus obscurus (Mtill.)
Cochlkopa luhrica (Mtill.)
Azeca tridens (Pult.). Wetheral ; Grimsdale
Woods ; Caldbeck ; Bothel ; Butter-
mere
Pupa anglica (F6r.)
— cylindracea (Da C.)
— muscorum (Linn.). Silloth ; Drigg ; Raven-
glass
Sphyradium edentulum (Drap.)
Vertigo antivertigo (Drap.). Mockerkin Tarn ;
Calder Bridge
— substriata (Jeff.)
Vertigo pygmaa (Drap.)
Balea perversa (Linn.)
Clausilia laminata (Mont.). Near Carlisle ;
Wigton ; Caldbeck ; Thornthwaite ;
near Penrith
— bidentata (Strom.)
Succinea putris (Linn.)
— elegans, Risso
b. Basommatophora
Carychium minimum, Mtill.
Ancylus Jiuviatilis, Mtill.
Velletia lacustris (Linn.)
Limnaa pereger (Mtill.)
— palustris (Mtill.)
— truncatula (Mtill.)
— glabra (Mtill.). Corby ; Bassenthwaite
Amphipeplea glutinosa (Mtill.). ' Pond near
Windermere' (Bulwer)
Planorbis albus, Mtill.
— glaber, Jeff. Rare : Pond at Blaith-
waite
— nautileus (Linn.). Corby ; Bothel ; Allon-
by ; Maryport ; near Penrith
— carinatus, Mtill. Uldale ; Nunwick Hall,
Great Salkeld
— marginatus, Drap.
— vortex (Linn.). Rare : Allonby
— spirorhis, Mtill.
— contortus (Linn.)
— fontanus (Lightf.)
— lineatus (Walker). Rickerby ; Blaith-
waite ; Ennerdale ; Bassenthwaite
Physa fontinalis (Linn.)
— hypnorum (Linn.). Rare : near Carlisle ;
Wigton
IL PROSOBRANCHIATA
Bithynia tentaculata (Linn.). Rickerby Beck ;
Thurstonfield Lough
Valvata piscinalis (Mtill.). Rickerby Beck ;
Petteril ; Bassenthwaite ; Derwent-
water
— cristata, Mtill. Caldbeck ; Bassenthwaite
Acicula lineata (Drap.). Bassenthwaite ; Lo-
dore : Borrowdale ; Scale Force
B. PELECYPODA
Vnio pictorum (Linn.). ' R. Brathay, near
Ambleside ' (Capt. Brown)
— margaritifer (Linn.)
Anodonta cygntea{Lmn.). Wreay ; Great Salkeld
Spharium corneum (Linn.). Near Carlisle ;
Ullswater ; Piel Wyke, Bassenthwaite
— lacuitre (Mtill.). Corby ; Rickerby Beck;
Blaithwaite ; Ullswater (?)
Pisidum amnicum (Mtill.). Rickerby Beck ;
Cockermouth ; Denton Hill Dam
— pusillum (Gmel.)
— nitidum, Jenyns. Dalston ; Wreay Wood
— fontinale (Drap.). Blaithwaite ; Bassen-
thwaite ; Portinscale
— milium (Held.). Blaithwaite
100
INSECTS
ORTHOPTERA
This order of insects, comprising the Earwigs, Cockroaches, Grass-
hoppers, Locusts and Crickets, is poorly represented in the British Isles,
the full list barely exceeding fifty species, and of these twelve are not
indigenous but merely stragglers from abroad, being introduced with
vegetable produce, fruit, etc. There has been no systematic work done
at the order in Cumberland, and the subjoined brief account may be said
to cover all that is known. Though it is hardly likely that the county
possesses anything but a poor orthopterous fauna, on account of its
northern position and the absence of chalk, still careful observation
would no doubt augment this list very considerably — probably
double it.
FORFICULARIA
Earwigs
The Lesser Earwig {Labia minor, L.) appears to be very local in the
county, having as yet only been noticed in the Lazonby district, where
it is quite common in gardens, frequenting dung heaps and decaying
vegetable matter. It is an active insect and readily takes to the wing.
The Common Earwig {Forjicula auricularia, L.) is only too common.
To the rural population it is known as the ' Twitchbell.'
BLATTODEA
Cockroaches
Phyllodromia germanica, L., is said to have been introduced into
Britain by soldiers returning from the Crimea in 1857. It has spread
rapidly and in certain localities has become very abundant, occurring in
restaurants, warehouses, etc. In Carlisle it inhabits flour mills. It is
much smaller than the next species, the Common Cockroach {Blatta
orientalis, L.), which is a pest in houses, etc., throughout the county.
The American Cockroach [Periplaneta americana, L.) has been found
sparingly in hothouses near Carlisle. This is another introduced
species.
ACRIDIODEA
Grasshoppers
Stenobothrus viridulus, L., .S*. bicolor, Charp., and S. parallelus, Zett.,
are found throughout the county in meadows and grassy places, the last
lOI
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
two species being especially abundant. Gomphocerus maculatus, Thunb.,
is another common species, but is usually met with on heaths, where its
dark colours assimilate beautifully with its surroundings. It is much
smaller than the other grasshoppers just cited, and this, together with its
spotted appearance, readily separates it from them. Tettix bipunctatus,
L., has occurred near Carlisle and elsewhere and is probably common.
It frequents dry ground where the herbage is scanty and is a curious
little insect.
LOCUSTODEA
Locusts
Locusta viridissima, L. In the south of England this fine insect is
common and is familiarly known as the ' Great Green Grasshopper,' but
it is absent in the north, and its only claim to notice in the present work
rests on a record in Stephens' Illustrations from Cumberland. It is
more than likely that the specimen (or specimens) upon which the
record was based was introduced into the district from the south.
Platycleis brachyptera, L., I have found in some numbers on heath land
near Lazonby. It is a decidedly local insect in Britain and has not been
previously recorded from further north than York.
GRYLLODEA
Crickets
The House Cricket {Gryllus domesticus, L.) is common and is the
only species of Cricket known in the county.
NEUROPTERA
ODONATA
T)ragonflies
These magnificent insects, so far as species are concerned, are not
numerous in the British Isles, only about forty species being known, and
of these about a quarter have been found in Cumberland. They have
not however received the attention they deserve and probably a diligent
student could easily double the county's present list.
Sympetrum scoticum, Don., is a common species on and near heaths in
most parts of the county. Libellula quadrimaculata, Linn., is another
heath species, and though more local than the preceding species, at times
abounds in favourite haunts such as Bolton Fell and Bowness Moss. In
dull weather it may sometimes be noticed resting among heather.
Cordulegaster annulatus, Latr., may often be seen on the wing in Borrow-
dale and other parts of the Lake District, but is an exceedingly difficult
species to capture on account of its lofty, soaring flight. I have seen it
in great numbers on the shores of Buttermere lake. It is one of the
finest of the British species. Mschna juncea, Linn., occurs in moderate
numbers near Carlisle and probably elsewhere. Its usual habitat is a fir
102
INSECTS
wood in which there are ponds. Its habits are restless and it is not
easily netted. /E. cyanea. Mull,, I have taken in the same locality as the
preceding, but it is a scarcer insect. Calopteryx virgo, Linn., is not un-
common in Newbiggen Wood near Carlisle, through which the river
Petteril runs. Its flight is weak. Pyrrhosoma nymphula, Sulz,, occurs
generally throughout the county, being found near running streams and
pools. Ischnura elegans, Lind., and Agrion puella, Linn., are both
common, inhabiting similar localities to the preceding species.
Enallagma cyathigerum, Charp., has been found in the Brampton and
Keswick districts.
The other divisions of the Neuroptera have not been worked in
Cumberland, so I cannot give any information about them.
HYMENOPTERA
ACULEATA
Ants, Bees and Wasps
The order Hymenoptera in its widest sense is one of the most exten-
sive of the orders of insects, including as it does the Ants, Bees, Wasps,
Sand Wasps, Saw Flies, Gall Flies and Ichneumon Flies. The Aculeata
are the highest section of the order, and their social habits and generally
large size have induced hymenopterists to devote most of their attention
to them. In Cumberland the Aculeata are imperfectly known, but from
the little which has been done it is probable that the fauna is a rich one.
Among the more interesting species which have occurred may be men-
tioned Vespa austriaca (males) and Nomada roberjeotiana, the latter being
captured with Andrena analis as its host. Mention should also be made
of A. lapponica, of which the first recorded British males were taken
near Carlisle in 1899.
HETEROGYNA MyRMiciDiE {continued)—
FoRMiCiD^ Monomorium pharaonis, Linn. This
Formica Linn. minute ant, though not indigenous
— rufa,' Linn. Keswick ; abundant in *« the British Isles, swarms in flour
Ashness Wood m'"s »n Carlide
— fusca, Linn. Occurs everywhere ; one FH^'^ORF'?
of the commonest ants in the county
— flavus, De Geer. Rather local, but Pompilid^
common where it occurs ; Borrow- Pompilus, Fab.
dale, Silloth — plumbeus, Fab. Swarms on the sand
— niger, Linn. hills at Silloth
— „ race alienus, Forst. Salius, Fab.
Myrmicid^ — exaltatus, Fab. Wan Fell
Leptothorax, Mayr. SpHEGiDiE
— acervorum, Fab. Locally abundant ; Gorytes, Latr.
Carlisle district, Cumrew Fell — mystaceus, Linn. Carlisle
Myrmica, Latr. Nysson, Latr.
— rubra, Linn. — spinosus, Fab. Carlisle
— race ruginodis, Nyl. ) p Mellinus, Fab.
— „ scabrinodis, Nyl. j — arvensis, Linn. Silloth ; rather common
— „ lobicornis. One specimen taken — sabulosus, Fab. Silloth
near Carlisle, March nth, 1900 Crabro, Fab.
103
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
SPHEGlDiE (continued) —
Crabro tibialis, Fab. Brampton district
— leucostomus, Linn. ) ^ ,. ,
— podagricus, v. d. L>ina. J
— chrysostomus, Lep. Widely distributed
and rather common ; sometimes taken
freely on dead trees
— cribrarius, Linn. Carlisle^ Lazonby dis-
trict, etc. ; not uncommon
DIPLOPTERA
VESPIDiE
Vespa, Linn.
— vulgaris, Linn. Common everywhere
— rufa, Linn. Common in the neigh-
bourhood of Carlisle
— austriaca, Panz. Of this rare wasp two
males were taken in 1900 — one
near Carlisle, the other in the
Lazonby district
— sylvestris, Scop. Penton, near the Scotch
border
— norvegica, Fab. Common ; nests in
bushes
EUMENID/E
Odynerus, Latr.
— spinipes, Linn. Carlisle
— pictus, Curt. Lazonby district
— parietinus Linn. | ^^^^.^^^
— antilope, Panz. J
ANTHOPHILA
Sub-division I. Obtusilingues
COLLETID^
Colletes, Latr.
— fodiens, Kirb. Silloth ; on ragwort
— marginata, Smith. ' Cumberland ' (F.
Smith)
Prosopis, Fab.
Carlisle
— confusa, Nyl. 1
1. i
Carlisle
brevicornis, Nyl.
Sub-division IL Acutilingues
Andrenid^
Sphecodes, Latr.
— subquadratus. Smith. Lazonby district
— similis, Wesm. Brampton district
— ferruginatus, Schenck. \ p ,■ ,
— variegatus, v. Hag. J
Halictus, Latr.
— rubicundus, Christ. Common every-
where
— cylindricus. Fab. Very common and
variable
— albipes, Kirb.
— nitidiusculus, Kirb.
— minutus, Kirb. \ Carlisle
— tumulorum, Linn.
— leucopus, Kirb.
Andrena, Fab.
— albicans, Kirb. Very common
Andrenid^ {continued) —
Andrena ross, Panz.
— „ race trimmerana, Kirb. Carlisle
— cineraria, Linn. Brampton district
— clarkella, Kirb. Carlisle
— nigroanea, Kirb. Carlisle ; common
— gwynana, Kirb. | ^^^^.^^^
— rucata. Smith. J
— nigriceps, Kirb. Two specimens at
Silloth in 1900
— tridentata, Kirb. One specimen in the
Lazonby district in 1 900 ; on ragwort
— denticulata, Kirb. Carlisle ; abundant
(F. Smith)
— cingulata. Fab. Carlisle
— albicrus, Kirb. Brampton district
— analis, Panz. Carlisle
— coitana, Kirb. Brampton and Lazonby
districts
— minutula, Kirb. Carlisle and Brampton
districts
— nana, Kirb. \
— wilkella, Kirb. j
— lapponica, Zett. Carlisle ; the first
recorded British males were taken
here in 1899 {vide E. M. M., vol.
xxxvi. p. 88)
Nomada, Fab.
— roberjeotiana, Panz. Carlisle ; a few
taken in 1900, associated with A.
analis
— alternata, Kirb. Carlisle, etc. ; common
— ruficornis, Linn. ) Carlisle and Bramp-
— bifida, Thoms. j ton districts
— borealis, Zett. Carlisle
— ochrostoma, Kirb. Carlisle and Lazonby
districts
— flavoguttata, Kirb. Carlisle
APIDiE
Megachile, Latr.
— versicolor, Smith. Carlisle (F. Smith)
Psithyrus, Lep.
— vestalis, Fourc. Carlisle
— quadricolor, Lep. Brampton district
Bombus, Latr.
— smithianus. White. Brampton district
— venustus. Smith. Carlisle
— agrorum. Fab. Very common
— latreillellus, Kirb.
— „ race distinguendus, Mor. Silloth
— derhamellus, Kirb. Brampton district
— lapidarius, Linn. Very common
— jonellus, Kirb. Carlisle
— pratorum, Linn. Common
— soroensis, Fab. Carlisle (F. Smith)
— terrestris, Linn. Very common
— „ race lucorum, Smith. Very
common
Apis, Linn.
— mellifica, Linn. Common
104
INSECTS
PHYTOPHAGA
Saisoflies
The following is a list of the Phytophagous Hymenoptera which
occur in the county : —
Tenthredo livida Selandria stramineipes
— atra — serva
— colon (?) Taxonus agrorum
— rufiventris — equiseti
— mesomela Poecilosoma liturata
— viridis Eriocampa limacina
— olivacea Blennocampa fuscipennis
— velox Emphytus succinctus
Tenthredopsis scutellaris Pachynematus capreae
— coqueberti Fenusa ulmi
— liturata Athalia rosae
— dorsalis Lygaeonematus astutus
— tristis (?) Hoplocampa testudinea
— thornleyi Tomosthetus luteiventris
Allantus maculatus Rhogogastera lateralis
— ternulus — viridis
— scrophulariae — punctulata
— arcuatus Croesus septentrionalis
Dolerus fulviventris Nematus ribesii
— vestigialis _ abdominalis
— aeneus, var. elongatus Trichiosoma lucorum
— coruscans Abia sericea
— gonagra Hylotoma cyanella
— picipes — ustulata
— niger Lopyrus pini
— thomsoni Sirex gigas
Strongylogaster cingulatus
Ichneumon Flies occur very abundantly, and a large number have
been collected by myself and friends, the bulk of which still await
identification. Very little appears to be known of these insects in the
British Isles, and the preparation of a county list could only be attempted
after some years of careful study.
COLEOPTERA
Beetles
Of this extensive order of insects upwards of 3,500 species inhabit
the British Isles, about one-third of which have been found in Cumber-
land, and the county fauna is by no means exhausted — indeed it cannot
be said to have yet been much more than sampled.
New species are added to the county list annually. During the past
year (1900) over 150 were found of which there were no previous
records, so that it is in every way likely that close on 1,700 species will
ultimately be found in the county by the active though small band of
resident collectors now investigating the coleopterous fauna of the moun-
tains and the moors, the plains and the seashore.
105
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
As is to be expected in such a mountainous county as Cumberland,
many of those species only found at considerable elevations are in the
county list, and the diligent collector will not be disappointed in his
search for them. That typical mountain beetle, Carabus glabratus,
occurs in all the mountain systems, and when in quest of it such species
as Pterostichus cethiops, P. vitreus, Cymindis vaporariorum and Bembidium
nigricorne may be confidently expected to turn up ; while in pools
Agabus congener, A. arcticus and Hydroporus morio are to be looked for.
From the stunted hawthorns on the slopes of the fells Telephorus obscurus
is to be beaten. Beneath stones on Cross Fell, the highest point of the
Pennines, Otiorrhynchus maurus has been found. Many interesting species
are found inhabiting the thick moss under waterfalls in the mountain
streams, of which perhaps Stenus guynemeri and Quedius auricomus are the
most characteristic.
The sand hills and extensive salt marshes along the shores of the
Solway Firth have a rich and varied fauna, as yet far from fully known.
Here Dyschirius nitidus, Agabus femoralis, Homalium exiguum and Telephorus
darwinianus occur, with hosts of other species ; and Anthicus scoticus,
occurring at Allonby, is interesting as being the only known locality in
England for this Scotch and Irish beetle.
Passing inland again, mention may be made of the capture of Lebia
crux-minor near Carlisle, a handsome but one of the rarest British species.
The discovery of a colony of the pretty Hydrothassa hannoverana in the
Lazonby district during the past summer (1900), after being missing in
the British Islands for a number of years, is also worthy of passing notice.
The genus Bembidium, one of the coleopterist's favourite genera, is
well represented in the county, many of the rarer species being found,
chief among which is B. schuppeli, first made known as British from
captures made in Cumberland on the banks of the Irthing, where it still
occurs.
The following list may be taken as a fairly complete one so far as
present knowledge goes.
A LIST OF THE COLEOPTERA OCCURRING IN THE COUNTY
Where no locality is given with a species it may be inferred that it is of general dis-
tribution.
CiciNDELiD^ Carabid^ {continued) —
Cicindela campestris, L. Notiophilus biguttatus, F.
Carabid^ — substriatus, Wat. Brampton district
Cychrus rostratus, L. — 4-punctatus, Dej. (Stephens)
Carabus catenulatus, Scop. — aquaticus, L.
— nemoralis, Mall. — palustris, Duft.
— glabratus, Payk. Lake mountains and — rufipes, Curt. ' Once down Wadling '
Pennines (T. C. Heysham in Stephens'
— violaceus, L. Illustrations)
— nitens, L. Cumrew Fell Leistus montanus, Steph. Skiddaw (Ste-
— granulatus, L. phens)
— monilis, F. Lazonby district — fulvibarbis, Dej.
— arvensis, F. — rufescens, F.
106
INSECTS
Sk'tddaw (J. T.
Salway
Carabid^ {continued) —
Nebria brevicollis, F.
— gyllenhali, Sch.
Blethisa multipunctata, L. Carlisle (Fow- —
ler) —
Elaphrus riparius, L. —
— cupreus, Duft. —
— lapponicus, Gyll.
Harris)
Loricera pilicornis, F.
Clivina fossor, L.
— collaris, Herbst.
Dyschirius impunctipennis, Daws
district
— nitidus, Dej. Burgh Marsh
— angustatus, Putz. Banks of the Irthing
(T. J. Bold)
— salinus, Schaum. Solway marshes
— globosus, Herbst.
Broscus cephalotes, L. Coast district
Badister bipustulatus, F.
— sodalis, Duft. Carlisle (T. C. Heysham)
Chlaenius nigricornis, F. Talkin Tarn
(T. J. Bold)
• Oodes helopioides, F. Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
Bradycellus placidus, Gyll. Carlisle
— cognatus, Gyll. Cumrew Fell
— verbasci, Duft. Carlisle
— harpalinus, Dej.
— collaris, Payk. Skiddaw, etc.
— similis, Dej.
Harpalus rufibarbis, F.
— ruficornis, F.
— aeneus, F.
— rubripes, Duft. Brampton district
— latus, L.
— tardus, Panz. Brampton district
Dichirotrichus pubescens, Payk. Solway
district
Anisodactylus binotatus, F. Carlisle
Stomis pumicatus, Panz.
Pterostichus cupreus, L. Silloth, etc.
Carabid^ (continued) —
Amara apricaria, Sturm.
— consularis, Duft. Castle Carrock
spinipes, Auct.
bifrons, Gyll.
— cupreus, var. affinis, Sturm. Carlisle
— versicolor, Sturm.
— madidus, F.
— aethiops, Panz. Cumrew Fell, Scaw
Fell
— vitreus, Dej.
tains
— niger, Schall.
— vulgaris, L.
— anthracinus,
phens)
— nigrita, F.
— strenuus, Panz.
— diligens, Sturm.
— vernalis, Gyll.
— striola, F.
Amara fulva, Dej.
ovata, F.
— similata, Gyll.
— acuminata, Payk.
— tibialis, Payk.
— lunicollis, SchiSd.
— familiaris, Duft.
■ — trivialis, Gyll.
— communis, Panz.
— plebeia, Gyll.
Calathus cisteloides, Panz.
— ftiscus, F.
— flavipes, Fourc,
— mollis. Marsh.
— melanocephalus.
Pennines and Lake moun- —
111, Cumberland (Ste- —
Coast district
L.
— „ var. nubigena, Hal.
High districts
— micropterus, Duft. Pennines
— piceus. Marsh
Taphria nivalis, Panz.
Pristonychus terricola, Herbst.
Anchomenus angusticoUis, F.
— dorsalis, Mull.
— albipes, F.
— marginatus, L. Sebergham
— parumpunctatus, F.
— viduus, Panz., var. moestus, Duft.
Lazonby district
— ftiliginosus, Panz.
— gracilis, Gyll.
— piceus, L.
OHsthopus rotundatus, Payk.
Bembidium rufescens, Gu6r.
— quinquestriatum, Gyll.
— obtusum, Sturm.
— guttula, F.
— mannerheimi, Sahl.
— biguttatum, F.
— asneum, Germ.
— doris, Panz. Silloth
— minimum, F. Solway district
— normannum, Dej. Skinhurness Marsh
— schiippeli, Dej. Banks of Irthing and
Eden
lampros, Herbst.
nigricorne, Gyll. Wan Fell
tibiale, Duft.
atrocaeruleum, Steph.
decorum, Panz.
monticola, Sturm,
stomoides, Dej. Banks of Irthing and
Gelt
quadriguttatum, F. Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
lunatum, Duft. Burgh Marsh and
banks of Irthing
107
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Carabid^ (continued) —
Bembidium concinnum, Steph. Burgh
Marsh
— femoratum, Sturm. Banks of Eden and
Irthing
— bruxellense, Wesm. Banks of Ge/t
— saxatile, Gyll. Allonby and Castle
Carrock
— anglicanum, Sharp. Lanercost (T. J.
Bold)
— littorale, Ol.
— pallidipenne, 111. Silloth
— bipunctatum, L. Burgh Marsh
— punctulatum, Drap.
— prasinum, Duft.
— varium, Ol. Skinbumess Marsh
— paludosum, Panz. Banks of Eden and
Gelt
Tachypus pallipes, Duft. Lanercost (T. J.
Bold)
— flavipes, L. Banks of Irthing
Trechus discus, F. Banks of Eden near
Salkeld
— micros, Herbst. Carlisle (Fowler)
— longicornis, Sturm. Lanercost (T. J.
Bold)
— rubens, F. Banks of Irthing (T. J.
Bold)
— minutus, F.
— secalis, Payk. Lazonby district
Patrobus excavatus, Payk.
— assimilis, Chaud. Mountain districts
Pogonus chalceus, Marsh. Silloth, etc.
Cymindis vaporariorum, L. Cumrew Fell,
Wan Fell
Lebia chlorocephala, HofF. Carlisle and
Lazonby districts
— crux-minor, L. Carlisle [vide E. M. M.
vol. XXXV. p. 145)
Dromius linearis, Ol.
— agilis, F. Brampton district
— meridionalis, Dej. Lazonby district
— quadrimaculatus, L.
— quadrinotatus, Panz.
— melanocephalus, Dej.
— nigriventris, Thorns. Lazonby district
— sigma, Rossi (Dawson, Geod. Brit.)
Metabletus foveola, Gyll.
HaLIPLID/E
Brychius elevatus, Panz.
Haliplus obliquus, F. Cumberland (T. T.
Bold)
— confinis, Steph. Talkin Tarn (T. J.
Bold)
— fulvus, F. Lazonby district
— ruficollis, De G.
— fluviatilis, Aub6
— lineatocollis. Marsh
Dytiscid^
Laccophilus obscurus, Panz. Carlisle
DYTisciDiE [continued) —
Hyphydrus ovatus, L. Crosby -on- Eden
(T. C. Heysham)
Coelambus inaequalis, F.
— parallelogrammus, Ahr. "> „ ...
— impressopunctatus, Sch. J
Deronectes latus, Steph. Lanercost (T. J.
Bold)
— assimilis, Payk. Keswick (H. Francis,
E. M. M. vol. xii. p. 175)
— depressus, F.
— i2-pustulatus, F.
Hydroporus granularis, L. Cardew Mire
(T. C. Heysham)
— lepidus, 01. Carlisle
— rivalis, Gyll.
— septentrionalis, Gyll.
— davisii, Curt. High districts
— halensis, F. Carlisle (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— lineatus, F. Carlisle
— tristis, Payk.
— umbrosus, Gyll.
— gyllenhali, Schiod.
— morio, Dej. Pennines
— vittula, Er. Carlisle
— palustris, L.
— erythrocephalus, L.
— melanarius, Sturm. Lanercost (T. J.
Bold)
— memnonius, Nic.
— obscurus, Sturm.
— nigrita, F.
— discretus, Fairm.
— pubescens, Gyll.
— planus, F.
Agabus guttatus, Payk.
— paludosus, F.
— unguicularis. Thorns. Carlisle
— congener, Payk. Mountain districts
— nebulosus, Forst.
— femoralis, Payk. Silloth
— arcticus, Payk. Mountain districts
— sturmii, Gyll.
— chalconotus, Panz.
— bipustulatus, L.
Platambus maculatus, L.
Ilybius fuliginosus, F.
— ater, De G. Carlisle
— guttiger, Gyll.
— aenescens, Thoms. Brampton district
Rhantus exoletus, Forst. \ „ ,. ,
— pulverosus, Steph. J ^'"''"''
— notatus. Berg. Carlisle (Fowler)
— bistriatus, Berg. Brampton district
Colymbetes fuscus, L.
Dytiscus punctulatus, F. Lazonby dis-
trict
— marginalis, L.
Acilius sulcatus, L.
08
INSECTS
I" (T. C. Heysham)
Gyrinid^
Gyrinus natator, Scop.
— marinuSjGyll. Car/u/^ (T.C. Heysham)
Orectochilus villosus, Mali.
Hydrophilid^
Hydrobius fiiscipes, L.
— picicrus, Thorns. Lazonhy district
Anacaena globulus, Payk.
— limbata, F.
Philydrus nigricans, Zett.
— minutus, F.
Helochares lividus, Forst. Brampton district
— punctatus, Sharp
Laccobius sinuatus. Mots.
— alutaceus, Thorns.
— minutus, L.
Limnebius truncatellus, Thorns.
Helophorus rugosus, Ol. \ Cardew Mire
— nubilus, F. /(
— aquaticus, L.
— sequalis, Thorns. Lazonhy district
— aeneipennis. Thorns.
— brevipalpis, Bedel
— arvernicus, Muls.
Henicocerus exsculptus, Germ. Cross Fell
Octhebius bicolon, Germ.
— rufimarginatus, Steph.
Hydraena riparia, Kug.
— nigrita. Germ. Carlisle (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— gracilis. Germ. Cross Fell
Sphasridium scarabasoides, F.
— bipustulatum, F.
Cercyon littoralis, Gyll. Silloth
— depressus, Steph. Banks of the Irthing
— haemorrhoidalis, Herbst.
— obsoletus, Gyll.
— flavipes, F.
— lateralis. Marsh.
— melanocephalus, L.
— unipunctatus, L.
— quisquilius, L.
— nigriceps, Marsh. Brampton district
— pygmasus. 111.
— analis, Payk.
Megasternum boleotophagum. Marsh.
Cryptopleurum atomarium, F.
Staphylinid^
Aleochara ruficornis, Grav. Brampton district
— fuscipes, F.
— bipunctata, Ol.
— cuniculorum, Kr.
— lanuginosa, Grav.
— mcesta, Grav. ) „ ,, j .. • ,
• 1 T-i- T Brampton district
— succicola. Thorns.) '^
— nitida, Grav.
— morion, Grav.
— grisea.
Kr
— algarum, Faur,
— obscurella, E
l\
Silloth
Staphylinidje {continued) —
Oxypoda spectabilis, Mark. Carlisle
— lividipennis, Mann. Brampton district
— opaca, Grav.
— alternans, Grav.
— longiuscula, Er.
— haemorrhoa, Mann. Brampton district
Ischnoglossa prolixa, Grav. Carlisle
Phloeopora reptans, Grav.
Ocalea castanea, Er.
— latipennis, Sharp. Carlisle
— badia, Er. Gelt valley
Ilyobates nigricollis, Payk. Lanercost (T.
J. Bold)
Chilopora rubicunda, Er. Cumberland
(Fowrler)
Myrmedonia collaris, Payk. Carlisle
— humeralis, Grav.
Astilbus canaliculatus, F.
Homalota currax, Kr. Banks of the Gelt
— insecta. Thorns. Banks of the Irthing
— pavens, Er. Banks of the Gelt
— gregaria, Er.
— luridipennis, Mann. ) Banks of the
— elongatula, Grav. j Irthing
— vestita, Grav.
— vicina, Steph.
— graminicola, Gyll.
— fungivora, Thorns. Brampton district
— linearis, Grav.
— circellaris, Grav.
— immersa, Heer. Carlisle
— analis, Grav.
— depressa, Gyll.
— xanthoptera, Steph.
— trinotata, Kr.
— xanthopus, Thorns. Carlisle
— fungicola, Thorns. "|
— gagatina, Baudi. j- Brampton district
— sericea, Muls. J
— nigra, Kr.
— atramentaria, Gyll.
— longicornis, Grav. Carlisle
— sordida. Marsh.
— aterrima, Grav. \ n r i
— muscorum, Bris. /
— fungi, Grav.
— „ var. dubia. Sharp
Gnypeta labilis, Er.
Tachyusa flavitarsis, Sahl.
— atra, Grav. La%onhy district
Autalia impressa, Ol.
— rivularis, Grav. Lazonhy district
Gyrophaena gentilis, Er.
Encephalus complicans, Westw. Lazonhy
district
Placusa complanata, Er. Wan Fell
Leptusa fumida, Er.
Bolitochara obliqua, Er.
Phytosus balticus, Kr. Silloth
[09
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Staphylinidje {continued) —
Oligota inflata, Mann.
Myllaena brevicornis, Matth.
Gymnusa brevicollis, Payk. Carlisle
Hypocyptus longicornis, Payk.
Conosoma littoreum, L.
— pubescens, Grav.
— immaculatum, Steph. Carlisle
. — lividum, Er.
Tachyporus obtusus, L.
— obtusus, var. nitidicollis, Steph.
— chrysomelinus, L.
— humerosus, Er.
— tersus, Er. Carlisle
— hypnorum, F.
— pusillus, Grav.
— brunneus, F.
— transversalis, Grav. Silloth
Lamprinus saginatus, Grav. 1 Lazonby
Cilea silphoides, L. J district
Tachinus flavipes, F. Brampton district
— humeralis, Grav.
— rufipes, L.
— subterraneus, L.
— marginellus, F.
— laticollis, Grav.
— collaris, Grav.
— elongatus, Gyll.
Megacronus cingulatus, Mann. Carlisle
and Brampton
— analis, F.
— inclinans, Grav.
Bolitobius lunulatus, L.
— trinotatus, Er.
— exoletus, Er. Carlisle
— pygmaeus, F.
Mycetoporus lepidus, Grav.
— longulus, Mann.
— clavicornis, Steph.) „ ,. ,
— splendidus, Grav. ] ^'"'^"^'
Heterothops binotata, Er. Silloth
Quedius lateralis, Grav.
— mesomelinus, Marsh.
— cinctus, Payk.
— fuliginosus, Grav.
— tristis, Grav.
— molochinus, Grav.
— picipes, Mann.
— nigriceps, Kr.
— fiimatus, Steph. Gelt Woods
— maurorufus, Grav. Brampton district
— umbrinus, Er.
— scintillans, Grav. Brampton district
— auricomus, Kies. Cross Fell
— rufipes, Grav.
— attenuatus, Gyll. Carlisle
— semiaeneus, Steph.
— fulvicollis, Steph.
— boops, Grav.
Creophilus maxillosus, L.
Carlisle
Staphylinid^ {continued') —
Leistotrophus nebulosus, F. "1
— murinus, L. /
Staphylinus pubescens, De G.
— fulvipes, Scop. Keswick
— stercorarius, Ol. Maryport
— erythropterus, L. Carlisle
Ocypus olens, Mull.
— similis, F. Lanercost (T. J. Bold)
— brunnipes, F.
— cupreus, Rossi
— morio, Grav.
Philonthus splendens, F.
— laminatus, Creutz
— aeneus, Rossi
— proximus, Kr. Brampton district
— scutatus, Er. East Cumberland (T. J.
Bold)
— decorus, Grav.
— politus, F.
— varius, Gyll.
— marginatus, F.
— albipes, Grav. Carlisle
— cephalotes, Grav.
— nigriventris, Thorns. Brampton dis-
trict
— fimetarius, Grav.
— sordidus, Grav. Burgh Marsh
— ebeninus, Grav.
— umbratllis, Grav.
— fumigatus, Er.
— sanguinolentus, Grav.
— longicornis, Steph. Brampton district
— varians, Payk.
— micans, Grav. Silloth
— trossulus, Nord.
— fulvipes, F.
— puella, Nord.
Cafius xantholoma, Grav. Silloth
Xantholinus glabratus, Grav.
— punctulatus, Payk.
— linearis, Ol.
— longiventris, Heer. Brampton district
Baptolinus alternans, Grav.
Othius fulvipennis, F.
— melanocephalus, Grav,
— myrmecophilus, Kies.
Lathrobium elongatum, L.
— boreale, Hoch. Brampton district
— fulvipenne, Grav.
— brunnipes, F.
— atripalpe. Sharp. Brampton district
— quadratum, Payk. Silloth
— terminatum, Grav. Brampton district
— angusticolle, Lac. Banks of the Irthing
(T. J. Bold)
Cryptobium glaberrimum, Herbst.
Stilicus rufipes. Germ. Carlisle
— orbiculatus, Er.
— aiEnis, Er.
IIO
INSECTS
Cartide (T. C.
Heysham)
Staphylinidje {continued) —
Paederus littoralis, Grav. )
— riparius, L. )
Evasthetus scaber, Thorns.
Dianous coerulescens, Gyll.
Stenus biguttatus, L. Cumberland (Fowler)
— guttula, Mtill.
— bimaculatus, Gyll.
— juno, F.
— guynemeri, Duv. Cross Fell
— speculator, Er.
— providus, Er. ■»
— lustrator, Er. }- Brampton district
— buphthalmus, Grav. J
— melanarius, Steph.
— atratulus, Er. Brampton district
— canaliculatus, Gyll. Cumberland (Fow-
ler)
— pusillus, Er. Brampton district
— declaratus, Er.
— nigritulus, Gyll. Cumberland (Fowler)
— brunnipes, Steph.
— subaeneus, Er. Silloth
— ossium, Steph.
— impressus, Germ. Brampton district
— erichsoni, Rye. Cumberland (Fowler)
— flavipes, Steph. Carlisle
— binotatus, Ljun. Cumberland (Fowler)
— pallitarsis, Steph.
— bifoveolatus, Gyll. Carlisle
— nitidiusculus, Steph.
— picipes, Steph. Brampton district
— similis, Herbst.
— tarsalis, Ljun.
— paganus, Er.
Bledius spectabilis, Kr. Solway marshes
— tricornis, Herbst. Near Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
— arenarius, Payk. Silloth
— pallipes, Grav. Brampton district
— subterraneus, Er.
— longulus, Er. Gelt valley
— erraticus, Er. Lanercost (T. J. Bold)
Platystethus arenarius, Fourc.
— cornutus, Gyll.
Oxytelus rugosus, Grav.
— sculptus, Grav.
— laqueatus, Marsh.
— inustus, Grav.
— sculpturatus, Grav.
— maritimus, Thorns. Silloth
— nitidulus, Grav.
— tetracarinatus, Block
Ancyrophorus omalinus, Er. j jf^^th^^al
— aureus, Fauv. )
Trogophloeus arcuatus, Steph.
— bilineatus, Steph.
— elongatulus, Er.
Coprophilus striatulus, F. Lazonby dis-
trict
STAPHYJLiNiDiS {continued) —
Deleaster dichrous, Grav. Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
Anthophagus testaceus, Grav. Carlisle
Geodromicus globulicoUis, Mann. Cumber-
land (Stephens)
Lesteva longelytrata, Goeze
— pubescens, Mann. Carlisle
— sicula, Er.
Acidota crenata, F.
Olophrum piceum, Gyll.
Lathrimaeum atrocephalum, Gyll.
— unicolor, Steph.
Deliphrum tectum, Payk.
Arpedium brachypterum, Grav. Brampton
district
Philorhinum sordidum, Steph.
Coryphium angusticolle, Steph. Brampton
district
Omalium rivulare, Payk.
— rugulipenne Rye \ ^.^^^^^
— ripanum, Thoms. J
— exiguum, Gyll. Burgh Marsh
— oxycantha^, Grav.
— excavatum, Steph.
— pusillum, Grav.
— punctipenne, Thoms. Brampton dis-
trict
— rufipes, Fourc.
— vile, Er.
— iopterum, Steph. Cross Fell
— planum, Payk. Brampton district
— concinnum, Marsh.
— striatum, Grav.
Eusphalerum primulas, Steph.
Anthobium minutum, F.
— torquatum, Marsh.
— sorbi, Gyll.
Proteinus ovalis, Steph.
— brachypterus, F.
Megarthrus denticollis. Beck ) ^ ,. ,
-affinis,Mill )^'"'^"''
— depressus, Lac. Brampton district
Phloeobium clypeatum, Mull.
PsELAPHlD^
Pselaphus heisei, Herbst.
Tychus niger, Payk. Carlisle
Bythinus validus, Aub6
— bulbifer, Reich.
Bryaxis fossulata, Reich.
— juncorum. Leach
ScYDM^NIDii:
Scydmaenus collaris, Miill.
Euconnus fimetarius, Chaud. Carlisle
SlLPHID^
Agathidium atrum, Payk. | ^^^^.^^^
— varians, Beck j
Liodes humeralis, Kug.
— glabra, Kug. Cumberland (Stephens)
Anisotoma calcarata, Er.
Ill
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
SiLPHiD^ [continued) —
Anisotoma rugosa, Sahib. Carlisle (Stephens)
Necrophorus humator, F.
— mortuorum, F.
— ruspator, Er.
— vespillo, L.
Necrodes littoralis, L.
Silpha tristis, 111.
— nigrita, Creutz. Carlisle and Brampton
— quadripunctata, L. Gelt Woods
— opaca, L.
— thoracica, L.
— rugosa, L.
— atrata, L.
— „ var. brunnea, Herbst.
Choleva angustata, F.
— cisteloides, Fr5hl.
— spadicea, Sturm. • Carlisle
— agilis, 111.
— velox, Spence
— wilkini, Spence
— nigricans, Spence. Carlisle
— longula, Kell. East Cumberland
— morio, F.
— grandicollis, Er.
— nigrita, Er.
— tristis, Panz.
— chrysomeloides, Panz.
— fumata, Spence
— watsoni, Spence. Brampton district
Ptomaphagus sericeus, F.
HlSTERID^
Hister unicolor, L. Carlisle
— cadaverinus, HofF.
— succicola, Thorns. Brampton district
— purpurascens, Herbst. Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
— neglectus. Germ. Skiddaw
— carbonarius, 111.
— bimaculatus, L.
Gnathoncus nannetensis. Mars.
Saprinus nitidulus, Payk.
— aeneus, F. Silloth
— rugifrons, Payk. Brampton district
— maritimus, Steph. Silloth
Onthophilus striatus, F.
SCAPHIDIID^
Scaphisoma boleti, Panz. Carlisle
COCCINELLID^
Hippodamia 13-punctata, L. Rockcliffe (T.
C. Heysham)
Adalia obliterata, L.
— bipimctata, L.
Mysia oblongoguttata, L.
Anatis ocellata, L.
Coccinella lo-punctata, L.
— hieijDglyphica, L.
— 1 1 -punctata, L. Coast of Cumberland
— 5 -punctata, L. Carlisle
— 7-punctata, L.
CocciNELLiDiE {continued) —
Halyzia i6-guttata, L.
— 14-guttata, L.
— i8-guttata, L.
— 22-punctata, L.
Scymnus nigrinus, Kug. Carlisle
— pygmaeus, Fourc. Silloth
— suturalis, Thunb.
— capitatus, F. Carlisle (Fowler)
Chilocorus bipustulatus, 111.
Rhizobius litura, F.
Coccidula rufa, Herbst.
EnDOMYCHIDjE
Endomychus coccineus, Panz. Newbiggen
WoodXT. C. Heysham)
Phalacrid^
Olibrus aeneus, F. Skinhurness
MiCROPEPLIDiE
Micropeplus porcatus, Payk, Carlisle
(Fowler)
— staphylinoides. Marsh. Lazonby district
NiTIDULIDiE
Brachypterus pubescens, Er.
— urticae, F.
Cercus pedicularius, L.
— bipustulatus, Payk.
— rufilabris, Latr.
Epuraea aestiva, L.
— deleta, Er. Lazonby district
— obsoleta, F.
— pusilla, Er. Brampton district
Omisiphora limbata, F. Gilsland
Nitidula bipustulata, L.
Soronia grisea, L. Lazonby district
Omosita depressa, L.
— colon, L.
— discoidea, F.
Pocadius ferrugineus, F.
Meligethes lumbaris, Sturm.
— aeneus, F.
— viridescens, F.
— picipes, Sturm.
Cychramus luteus, F. Carlisle
Ips quadriguttata, F. Carlisle (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— quadripunctata, Herbst. Carlisle
— quadripustulata, L.
Pityophagus ferrugineus, F. Brampton dis-
trict
Trogositid^
Tenebrioides mauritanicus, L. Carlisle
COLYDIID^
Cerylon histeroides, F. Carlisle
CucujiD^
Rhizophagus cribratus, Gyll. Carlisle
— depressus, F.
— parallelocollis, Er. Lanercost (T. J.
Bold)
— ferrugineus, Payk. Brampton district
— dispar, Gyll.
112
INSECTS
CucujiDiE {continued) —
Rhizophagus bipustulatus, F.
Silvanus surinamensis, L. Carlisle
LATHRIDIIDiE
Lathridius lardarius, De Geer.
Coninomus nodifer, Westw. Brampton
district
Enicmus minutus, L.
— transversus, Ol.
Cartodere ruficollis, Marsh. Eden bridge
(T. C. Heysham)
Corticaria pubescens, Gyll.
— denticulata, Gyll. ) „ ,■ •
1 ^ tr > Brampton district
— elongata, Humm. j ^
Melanophthalma fuscula, Humm.
Cryptophagid^
Telmatophilus caricis, Ol.
Antherophagus nigricornis, F.
— pallens, Gyll.
Cryptophagus setulosus, Sturm.
— pilosus, Gyll. Brampton district
— saginatus, Sturm.
scamcus, L.
Herbst.
— dentatus, Herbst. Carlisle
Micrambe vini, Panz.
Paramecosoma melanocephalum,
Carlisle
Atomariafuscipes, Gyll.) n , >• •
. ,. T^"^ ' •* > Brampton district
— apicahs, xLx. j ^
— fuscata, Schon.
— pusilla, Payk.
— analis, Er.
Ephistemus gyrinoides, Marsh
Mycetophagid^
Typhaea fiimata, L.
Mycetophagus quadripustulatus, L. Lazonby
district
Byturid^
Byturus tomentosus, F.
Dermestid^
Dermestes lardarius, L.
Attagenus pellio, L.
Anthrenus musaeorum, L.
Byrrhid^e
Byrrhus pilula, L.
— fasciatus, F. Carlisle (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— dorsalis, F. Brampton district
Cytilus varius, F.
Simplocaria semistriata, F.
Parnid^
Elmis aeneus, Mull. Cross Fell
Limnius tuberculatus, Mull. Cross Fell
Parnus prolifericornis, F.
— auriculatus, Panz.
Heteroceridje
Heterocerus marginatus, F. Burgh Marsh
— brittanicus, Kuw. Silloth
Lucanid^
Sinodendron cylindricum, L.
SCARAB^IDiE
Onthophagus fracticornis, Payk.
— nutans, F. Jrmathwaitel T. C.
— nuchicornis, L. Wastdale) Heysham
Aphodius erraticus, L.
— subterraneus, L. Rockcliffe (T. C.
Heysham)
— fossor, L.
— hxmorrhoidalis, L.
— foetens, F. Lazonby district
— fimetarius, L.
— scybalarius, F. Carlisle (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— ater, De G.
— sordidus, F. Rockcliffe (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— rufescens, F. Lazonby district
— lapponum, Gyll. Pennines and Lake
Mountains
— porcus, F. Lazonby district
— pusillus, Herbst.
— merdarius, F.
— inquinatus, F.
— conspurcatus, L. Carlisle
— punctato-sulcatus, Stm.
— prodromus, Brahm
— contaminatus, Herbst.
— luridus, F.
— rufipes, L.
— depressus, Kug.
^gialia sabuleti, Payk. Banks of i?^f« and
Irthing
— arenaria, F. Silloth
Geotrupes typhoeus, L. Wan Fell {Lazonby
district)
— spiniger, Marsh.
— stercorarius, L.
— sylvaticus, Panz.
— vernalis, L. Wastdale
Trox sabulosus, L. Wan Fell
Hoplia philanthus, Ftiss. Seathwaite
Serica brunnea, L.
Melolontha vulgaris, F.
Phyllopertha horticola, L.
Anomala frischii, F. Silloth
Gnorimus nobilis, L. Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
THROSCIDiE
Throscus dermestoides, L.
Elaterid^
Lacon murinus, L.
Cryptohypnus riparius, F.
— dermestoides, Herbst.
— quadriguttatus, Lap. Brampton district
Elater balteatus, L.
Melanotus rufipes, Herbst.
Athous niger, L.
— longicollis, Ol. Rose Castle (T. C.
Heysham)
— hasmorrhoidalis, F.
"3
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Elaterid^e {continued) —
Limonius cylindricus, Payk.
— minutus, L. Lazonby district
Sericosomus brunneus, L.
Adrastus limbatus, F.
Agriotes sputator, L,
— obscuras, L.
— lineatus, L.
— sobrinus, Kies.
— pallidulus, 111.
Dolopius marginatus, L.
Corymbites pectinicornis, L. Carlisle
— cupreus, F.
— „ var. Eeruginosus, F-
— tessellatus, F. Wan Fell
— quercus, Gyll.
— „ var. ochropterus, Steph.
— impressus, F. Carlisle
Campylus linearis, L.
Dascillid^
Dascillus cervinus, L.
Helodes minuta, L.
— marginata, F.
Microcara livida, F.
Cyphon coarctatus, Payk.
— nitidulus, Thorns.
— variabilis, Thunb.
— pallidulus. Boh.
— padi, L.
Hydrocyphon deflexicollis, MUll. Banks of
the Irthing
Malacodermid^
Lampyris noctiluca, L.
Podabrus alpinus, Payk.
Ancistronycha abdominalis, F. Gelt valley
Telephorus rusticus, Fall.
— lividus, L.
— pellucidus, F.
— nigricans, Miill.
— „ var. discoideus, Steph.
— obscurus, L. Keswick
— lituratus, F. Carlisle
— darvifinianus. Sharp. Burgh Marsh
— figuratus, Mann.
— bicolor, F.
— hsemorrhoidalis, F.
— flavilabris. Fall.
— thoracicus, Ol. Lazonby district
Rhagonycha fulva, Scop.
— testacea, L. Barron Wood (T. C.
— limbata. Thorns. [Heysham)
— pallida, F.
Malthinus punctatus, Fourc.
— frontalis. Marsh.
Malthodes marginatus, Latr.
— dispar. Germ. Brampton district
— atomus, Thoms. Lazonby district
Malachius bipustulatus, L.
— viridis, F. Barron Wood (T. C. Hey-
sham)
Malacodermid^ {continued') —
Anthocomus fasciatus, L. Rose Castle (T.
C. Heysham)
Dasytes aerosus, Kies.
Clerid^
Tillus elongatus, L. Barron Wood (T. C.
Heysham)
Necrobia ruficoUis, F. Penrith
— violacea, L. Lazonby district
Ptinid^
Ptinus sexpunctatus, Panz, Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
— fur, L.
Niptus hololeucus, Fald.
— crenatus, F. Brampton district
Hedobia imperialis, L. Lazonby district
Gibbium scotias, F. \ n V 1
Dryophilus pusillus, Gyll. /
Anobium domesticum, Fourc.
Xestobium tessellatum, F. Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
Ernobius mollis, L.
Ochina hederae, MUll. Lanercost (T. J. Bold)
Priobium castaneum, F. Carlisle
ClSSID^
Cis boleti, Scop.
— bidentatus, Ol. \ „ . . -• . ■ ^
I . p II !■ Brampton district
— nitidus, Herbst. Carlisle
Octotemnus glabriculus, Gyll.
Cerambycidje
Aromia moschata, L. Keswick
Asemum striatum, L. Brampton district
Callidium alni, L. Rose Castle (T. C.
Heysham)
— violaceum, L. Eskdale (W. W. Fovi^ler,
E. M. M. vol. XXXV. p. 292)
Clytus arietis, L.
— arcuatus, L. Barron Wood (T. C.
Heysham)
Rhagium inquisitor, F.
— bifasciatum, F.
Pachyta cerambyciformis, Schr. Gelt Woods
Strangalia armata, Herbst. Keswick
— melanura, L. Carlisle.-
— quadrifasciata, L. Barron Wood (T. C.
Heysham)
Grammoptera tabacicolor, De G. Carlisle
— ruficornis, F.
Leiopus nebulosus, L,
Pogonochaerus bidentatus, Thoms.
— dentatus, Fourc.
Saperda scalaris, L. Gelt Woods
— populnea, L. Carlisle
Oberea oculata, L. Barron Wood (T. C.
Heysham)
Chrysomelid^
Donacia crassipes, F. Upperhy (T. C.
Heysham)
— dentata, Hoppe. Cumberland (Stephens)
[14
INSECTS
Chrysomeud^ {continued) —
Donacia dentipes, F. BorrowdaU
— simplex, F.
— sericea, L.
— discolor, Panz. Hayton Moss, Sty Head
Pass
Zeugophora subspinosa, F. Carlisle
Lema lichenis, Voet.
— melanopa, L.
Crioceris asparagi, L. TFoodside (T. C.
Heysham)
Clythra quadripunctata, L. Keswick
Cryptocephalus fulvus, Goeze \ ^ ...
— labiatus, L. J *'' " *
Chrysomela marginata, L. Burgh Marsh
(T, C. Heysham)
— staphylea, L.
— polita, L.
— orichalcia, MuU. Armathwaite (T. C.
Heysham)
— varians, Schall. Lazonby district
— graminis, L, Sandsfield (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— raeaxhtastiy^ivSr^ Cumberland' (Stephens)
— fastuosa, Scop. Gelt Woods
— hyperici, Forst.
Melasoma aeneum, L.
— populi, L. Allonby
Phytodecta olivacea, Forst.
— olivacea, var. nigricans, Weise. Car-
lisle
— rufipes, De G. Armathwaite (T. C.
Heysham)
Gastroidea viridula, De G. Lazonby dis-
trict
— polygoni, L.
Phaedon tumidulus, Germ.
— armoraciae, L.
— cochlearije, F,
Phyllodecta vulgatissima, L.
— cavifrons, Thoms. Carlisle
— vitellinae, L.
Hydrothassa aucta, F.
— marginella, L.
— hannoverana, F, Lazonby district {vide
E. M. M. vol. xxxvi, p. 262)
Prasocuris junci, Brahm
— phellandrii, L.
Luperus rufipes. Scop.
— flavipes, L.
Lochmaea capreae, L.
— suturalis, Thoms.
Galerucella nymphaeae, L. \ Brampton dis-
— sagittariae, Gyll. / trict
— lineola, F. "1 /-. ,■ ,
, • • T f Carlisle
— calmariensis, L. J
— tenella, L.
Adimonia tanaceti, L.
Sermyla halensis, L.
Longitarsus anchusae, Payk,
Chrysomelid^ {continued) —
Longitarsus luridus. Scop.
— atricillus, L.
— melanocephalus. All.
— pusillus, Gyll.
— jacobaeae, Wat.
— suturellus, Duft. Lazonby district
Haltica ericeti. All.
— oleracea, L.
Phyllotreta undulata, Kuts.
— nemorum, L. Carlisle
— tetrastigma. Com. Wetheral
— exclamationis, Thunb.
Sphaeroderma testaceum, F.
Apteropeda orbiculata, Marsh.
Mantura obtusata, Gyll. Carlisle
rustica, L.
Crepidodera transversa. Marsh.
— ferruginea. Scop.
— rufipes, L. Lazonby district
— aurata. Marsh.
— ventralis, 111. Holme Gate \ (T. C. Hey-
— helxines, L. Rose Castle ] sham)
Hippuriphila modeeri, L.
Plectroscelis concinna, Marsh.
Psylliodes chrysocephala, L. Penrith
— napi, Koch.
— marcida, 111. Silloth
— picina, Marsh.
Cassida equestris, F. Rickerby (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— flaveola, Thunb. Carlisle
— viridis, F.
— hemisphjerica, Herbst. Carlisle
Teneerionid^
Blaps mucronata, Latr.
Heliopathusgibbus,F.|5.^^^^^
Microzoum tibiale, b. i
Diaperus boleti, L. Daiston Hall Wood
(T. C. Heysham)
Tenebrio molitor, L.
— obscurus, F. ■ Carlisle
Tribolium ferrugineum, F.
Helops striatus, Fourc. Silloth
— coeruleus, L. Carlisle (T. C. Hey-
sham)
Melandryid^
Conopalpus testaceus, Ol., var. vigorsi,
Steph. Cumberland (Weaver)
Melandrya caraboides, L. Carlisle
PvTHID-ffi
Salpingus castaneus, Panz.
— foveolatus, Ljun.
Rhinosimus ruficollis, L.
— viridipennis, Steph.
— planirostris, F.
CEdemerid^e
Nacerdes melanura, Schmidt. Silloth
Pyrochroid^
Pyrochroa serraticornis. Scop. Carlisle
115
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Carlisle
Carlisle
Carlisle
MoRDELLIDiE
Anaspis frontalis, L.
— rufilabris, Gyll.
— geofFroyi, MuU.
— ruficollis, F.
— subtestacea, Steph.
— maculata, Fourc.
RHIPIDOPHORIDi«
Metoecus paradoxus, L.
Anthicidje
Anthicus floralis, L.
— scoticus, Rye. Allonby
MeloYd^
Melofi proscarabaeus, L.
Anthribid^
Brachytarsus varius, F.
CURCULIONID^
Apoderus coryli, L. Barron Wood (T. C.
Heysham)
Attelabus curculionoides, L.
Rhinomacer attelaboides, F.
Byctiscus betuleti, F. \ Barron Wood (T.
Rhynchites cupreus, L.
— aeneovirens. Marsh.
minutus, Herbst.
nanus, Payk.
C. Heysham)
Carlisle
Brampton district
— uncinatus, Thorns.
Deporatls megacephalus, Germ.
— betulas, L.
Apion ulicis, Forst.
— hasmatodes, Kirby
— viciae, Payk.
— apricans, Herbst.
— dichroum, Bedel
— nigritarse, Kirby
— stolidum. Germ. Carlisle
— aeneum, F. Botcherby (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— radiolus, Kirby 1 „ , ...
- —- ' > Brampton district
onopordi, Kirby,
carduorum, Kirby
virens, Herbst.
punctigerum, Payk.
Carlisle
— pisi, F.
pisi,
aethiops, Herbst.
^}!^^l"'\^l''Jf} Carlisle
moth
Brampton
striatum, Kirby
ononis.
Kirby.
— spencei, Kirby,
— ervi, Kirby
— gyllenhali, Kirby
— unicolor, Kirby.
— scutellare, Kirby
— loti, Kirby
— seniculum, Kirby
— affine, Kirby
— violaceum, Kirby
— hydrolapathi, Kirby,
Heysham)
— humile, Germ.
Brampton district
Carlisle
Etterhy (T. C.
Il6
CuRCULiONiD.^; {continued) —
Apion assimile, Kirby
Otiorrhynchus atroapterus, De G. Silloth
— maurus, Gyll. Cross Fell
— scabrosus. Marsh. Dalston (T. C.
Heysham)
— ligneus, Ol.
— picipes, F.
— sulcatus, F.
— ovatus, L.
Trachyphlaeus scaber, L. Newby Cross (T.
C. Heysham)
— aristatus, Gyll. Lazonby district
Strophosomus coryli, F.
— capitatus, De G.
— retusus. Marsh.
— lateralis, Payk.
Exomias araneiformis, Schr.
Omias mollinus. Boh. Cross Fell
Brachysomus echinatus, Bonsd.
Sciaphilus muricatus, F.
Tropiphorus tomentosus. Marsh.
Liophloeus nubilus, F.
Polydrusus micans, F. Carlisle (Fowler)
— tereticollis, De G. Carlisle
— pterygomalis. Boh.
— cervinus, L.
Phyllobius oblongus, L.
— calcaratus, F.
— urticae, De G.
— py", L.
— argentatus, L.
— maculicornis. Germ.
— pomonae, Ol.
— viridijeris, Laich.
— viridicollis, F.
Tanymecus palliatus, F. Solway Marshes
Philopedon geminatus, F. Silloth
Atactogenus exaratus. Marsh.
Barynotus obscurus, F.
— schonherri, Zett.
— elevatus. Marsh.
Alophus triguttatus, F.
Sitones griseus, F. Silloth
— cambricus, Steph.
— regensteinensis, Herbst.
— tibialis, Herbst.
— hispidulus, F.
— flavescens. Marsh.
— „ var. longicollis, Fahr. Wreay
— puncticoUis, Steph.
— lineatus, L.
— sulcifrons, Thunb.
Hypera punctata, F.
— rumicis, L.
— polygoni, L.
— suspiciosa, Herbst,
— plantaginis, De G.
— trilineata, Marsh. Carlisle
nigrirostris, F.
INSECTS
CuRCULiONiDiE {continued) —
Cleonus sulcirostris, L. Silloth
Lixus paraplecticus, L. Burgh Marsh (T.
C. Heysham)
Liosoma ovatulum, Clairv.
Hylobius abietis, L.
Pissodes pini, L.
Orchestes quercus, L. Carlisle
— scutellaris, Gyll. Dalston (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— ilicis, F. Lazonby district
— fagi, L.
— rusci, Herbst.
— stigma, Germ.
— salicis, L.
— saliceti, Payk. . Carlisle
Rhamphus flavicornis, Clairv.
Grypidius equiseti, F.
Erirrhinus bimaculatus, F. Solway Marshes
— acridulus, L.
Dorytomus vorax, F. Carlisle
— tremulse, F. { Cardew Mire (T. C.
— tortrix, L. J Heysham)
— maculatus, Marsh.
— pectoralis, Gyll.
— majalis, Payk. Carlisle (T. C. Hey-
sham)
Bagous glabrirostris, Herbst. Dalston (T.
C. Heysham)
Anoplus plantaris, Naez.
EUeschus bipunctatus, L. Carlisle
Miarus campanulje, L. Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
Gymnetron beccabungas, LO ^ /• /
— labilis, Herbst, J
Mecinus pyraster, Herbst,
Anthonomus ulmi, De G. Lazonby district
— pedicularius, L.
— pomorum, L. Brampton district
— rubi, Herbst.
Cionus scrophulariae, L.
, — pulchellus, Herbst,
Orchitis cyaneus, L.
Cryptorrhynchus lapathi, L.
Cceliodes rubicundus, Herbst.
quercus,
F.
— ruber, Marsh. Brampton district
CuRCULiONiDiE [continued') —
— quadrimaculatus, L.
— cardui, Herbst. Dalston (T. C. Hey-
sham)
— geranii, Payk. Gelt Woods
— exiguus, Ol. Brampton district
Poophagus sisymbrii, F.
— nasturtii. Germ. Lazonby district
Ceuthorrhynchus assimilis, Payk.
— ericae, Gyll.
— erysimi, F.
— contractus, Marsh.
— cyanipennis, Germ.
— quadridens, Panz.
— pollinarius, Forst.
— pleurostigma, Marsh.
— marginatus, Payk. Blackball Wood (T.
C. Heysham)
— euphorbiae, Bris. Carlisle
— litura, F.
Ceuthorrhynchidius floralis, Payk. Bramp-
ton district
— troglodytes, F,
Rhinoncus pericarpius, L,
— castor, F.
Phytobius quadrituberculatus, F, Burgh
Marsh
Limnobaris T-album, L. Lazonby district
Balaninus nucum, L. Blackball Wood (T.
C, Heysham)
— villosus, F. Carlisle
— salicivorus, Payk.
Magdalis carbonaria, L. Carlisle (T. C.
Heysham)
— armigera, Fourc. Lazonby district
— pruni, L. Carlisle (T. C. Heysham)
SCOLYTID^
Scolytus destructor, Ol. Carlisle
Hylastes ater, Payk.
— palliatus, Gyll,
Hylesinus crenatus, F, Lazonby district
— fraxini, Panz.
Myelophilus piniperda, L.
Phloeophthorus rhododactylus. Marsh.
Brampton district
Pityogenes bidentatus, Herbst.
Trypodendron domesticum, L.
LEPIDOPTERA
RHOPALOCERA
Butterflies
Some forty-nine species of Butterflies have been recorded from
Cumberland, but four of these have little or no claim to be considered
true natives. These doubtful species are P. machaon, A. latona, L.
Sibylla and H. comma. Pieris brassicce, L., Large White, is the most un-
117
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
certain of the three common 'whites' in its appearance. Though usually
common in both spring and summer broods, some seasons it is almost
rare. Larvas are sometimes seen feeding in gardens until the end of
November. P. rapee^ L., Small White, is always abundant everywhere,
and so is P. napi, L., Green-veined White. This last varies considerably
in the colouration of the veins, some specimens having them rusty
brown. Euchloe' cardamines, L., Orange Tip, is common in lanes,
meadows and wood rides from May to July. The usual food plant of
the larva is lady's smock, but it is often noticed feeding on the seed pods
of towering mustard, and I have seen the female butterfly ovipositing on
watercress. The larvs feed up very rapidly, the larval existence seldom
exceeding three weeks, usually it is much less. Eleven months of the
year are probably spent in the pupal state. Leucophasia sinapis, L., Wood
White, is very rare in the county. It has occurred in Barron, Orton,
and Newbiggen Woods near Carlisle, in the Great Wood near Keswick,
and elsewhere among the lakes. Two specimens taken at Orton about the
year 1887 are the most recent captures I am acquainted with. Here
as elsewhere Colias edusa, Fb., Clouded Yellow, is very erratic in its
appearance. A few were taken in 1858 and 1859 in different parts of
the county. In 1877 a few occurred near Keswick and Carlisle, but
near Workington it was common. Three years later it was again re-
ported to be common in west Cumberland, but I am not quite sure of
this record. A specimen taken at RockclifFe near Carlisle in 1892 is
probably the most recent capture.^ C. hyale, L., Pale Clouded Yellow,
is recorded from Workington (£. M. M., vol. xiv. p. 64) and from
Newbiggen Wood by the late J. B. Hodgkinson. Keswick is the only
reliable locality for Gonopteryx rhamni^ L., Brimstone, where it is said to
be moderately common. There is a single record from Orton, but it
has never been verified. The distribution oi Argynnis selene, SchifF., Small
Pearl Border, and A. euphrosyne, L., Pearl Border, in the county is rather
peculiar. In the Carlisle and Brampton districts euphrosyne is scarce,
while selene abounds on rough meadows and commons. Near Lazonby
both species are common, but in the lake country euphrosyne appears to
become the predominating species. A. aglaia, L., Dark Green Fritillary,
is widely distributed, being equally at home among the sand-dunes of
the Solway or on the precipitous sides of the highest mountains. A.
adippe, L., High Brown Fritillary, is very rare, but has been recorded
from such widely separate stations as Scale Hill Woods, Keswick, and
Newbiggen near Carlisle. I can make out very httle that is definite
concerning A. paphia, L., Silver- washed Fritillary, as a Cumberland
insect ; certainly it has not been taken for many years. The record in
Science Gossip, 1894, is an error, A. aglaia being the species intended.
The Carlisle forms of Melitcea aurinia, Rott., Greasy Fritillary, are well
known to lepidopterists in Britain. It is a singularly local insect, but in
its two haunts near Carlisle occurs in amazing numbers. A few speci-
^ During the past season (1900) C. edusa was taken twice near Maryport. and one was seen
near Carlisle.— F. H. D.
118
INSECTS
mens were taken on the west side of Derwentwater by the late W.
Greenip. Single specimens have occurred recently at Maryport and on
Wan Fell near Lazonby. Though the larvse invariably feed on devil's-
bit-scabious, they may at times be found on honeysuckle, plantain and
great valerian ; but from personal observation I am led to believe that
the ova are always deposited on the scabious. The larvas are much
tormented by parasitic Hynienoptera, and there are probably two broods
of the parasite bred at the expense of one brood of the butterfly — one
appearing at the time the larvas leave their hybernacula in early spring,
the other when they are full fed some six weeks or two months later.
The imagines vary considerably. A fine form occurring annually has
the basal three-parts of the wings black. Another has the two yellow
spots on the inner margin of the primaries very large and confluent and
the other yellow markings are also usually much enlarged. In the
' fifties ' and perhaps before, Vanessa c-album, L., Comma Butterfly, was
taken in some numbers in Barron Wood to the south of Carlisle by
Armstrong, Hodgkinson and other collectors now deceased, but since
then I have heard nothing of it in the county. V. polychloros, L., Large
Tortoiseshell, is said to appear in the neighbourhood of Keswick at un-
certain intervals, and many years ago one or two were probably taken near
the shores of the Solway Firth. V. urticce, L., Small Tortoiseshell, is
universally common. I have seen it careering over the summits of our
highest mountains. A pretty. form occurs in Borrowdale of a salmon-
pink colour. The late James Barnes of Carlisle had a variety — which
I always understood was a Cumberland insect — which resembled
Newman's fourth figure, but was darker and larger. This in time passed
into the possession of J. B. Hodgkinson, and when his well-known
collection came to the hammer in 1897 the 'Barnes' urtica realized
£,"]. loj. V. io, L., Peacock, was formerly as abundant as the preced-
ing species, but in most parts of the county it is now one of the rarest
butterflies. I have never myself come across it, though I have spent a
large portion of the last ten years in active field-work.^ V. antiopa, L.,
Camberwell Beauty, has been taken on half a dozen occasions, but not
very recently. Carlisle and Cockermouth are localities. V.atalanta,\j.,
Red Admiral, is invariably common every season. Near Carlisle in
1894 it swarmed.* I have bred the butterfly as early as the second week
of July and as late as the last week of October. Hibernated specimens
are seldom seen on the wing earlier than June, unlike its congener
urticce, which is quite active in early April. Though it occurs through-
out the county, V. cardui, L., Painted Lady, is very erratic in its
appearance. Near Carlisle in 1887 it was abundant, and since then
more than two or three have seldom been captured in a season, and in
several seasons none at all. Perhaps Cumberland's most characteristic
butterfly is Erebia epiphron, Knoch, Mountain Ringlet, which has its
headquarters on the sloppy ground contiguous to Sty Head and Sprinkling
^ In 1900 F. to was not uncommon near Maryport and several specimens were noticed in the
Carlisle district. — F. H. D. * In 1900 F. atalanta was again extremely abundant. — F. H. D.
119
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Tarns under the shadow of Scaw Fell, where it was discovered by
Thomas Stothard hard upon a century ago. It appears to be extending
its range much lower down, and one can now meet with it close to the
village of Seathwaite at the foot of Sty Head Pass. In the summer of
1898 I was pleased to meet with an extensive colony on a grassy plateau
over Buttermere, where apparently it had not before been observed. It
is also recorded from the Vale of Newlands, and indeed I expect it will
ultimately be found in many more localities. It should be mentioned
that most of the Cumberland specimens are referable to the var. cassiope,
Fb., characterized by the absence of white pupils to the ocellated spots
on the wings. E. cethiops, Esp., Northern Brown, strange to say appears
to have escaped detection in Cumberland as yet. There have been
rumours of its capture within the confines of the county, but after much
inquiry I cannot find out anything satisfactory concerning them. But
that it does occur I can hardly bring myself to doubt, as it is common in
all the adjoining counties — Dumfriesshire to the north, Westmorland to
the south, and Northumberland and Durham to the east. Pararge egeria,
L., Speckled Wood, is very rare, having only been noticed near Keswick.
P. megeera, L., Wall Butterfly, however is locally abundant. It can be
seen in any lane near the county town in May and early June, and again
in late July and throughout August. It is also abundant on the coast
road between Silloth and Maryport, but among the lakes and also in the
east of the county it is seldom seen. I have at times seen numbers
of this butterfly resting on the wooden posts set up to carry wire
fencing, as well as on tree trunks and walls. Its predilection for
resting on walls is well known however. Satyrus semele, L., Grayling,
is abundant all along the coast. Near Leegate, in the vicinity of
Wigton, it frequents railway banks. It occurs sparingly at other inland
stations, but its true home seems to be the coast sandhills. Epinephele
ianira, L., Meadow Brown, is very abundant everywhere and occasionally
' bleached ' specimens are to be taken, but by a singular fatality the
best freaks of this kind I have come across have been too wasted to pin.
E. tithonus, L., Large Heath, must be accounted rare. Keswick is the
only reliable locality I know of. I am sure there is something wrong
about Mawson's record from St. Bees in the Transactions of the Cumberland
and Westmorland Scientific Association^ 1883, as no one else appears to
have met with it there, though the locality has been frequently visited.
Though always very local, E. hyper anthes^ L., Ringlet, in some of its
haunts occurs in profusion. It is probably nowhere so common in the
county as in the meadows fringing the south side of Orton Woods near
Carlisle, where beautiful forms may be obtained. Other localities are Kes-
wick, Wigton, Silloth, Brampton and Penrith. It is noteworthy that the
Cumberland insect has the underside of a grey hue, quite unlike the rich
yellowish brown of the southern insect. A butterfly eminently typical of
this county of ' mosses' is Ccenonympha typhon, Rott., Marsh Ringlet, which
is common throughout the county wherever ground suited to its tastes is
to be found. Bowness Flow, Todhills Moss and Bolton Fell may be
120
INSECTS
cited as localities. Its powers of flight are not great, but owing to the
nature of the ground it frequents it is not an easy insect to capture.
Before sunrise and after sunset and in dull weather a few may be found
resting on grass stems and amongst heath, but they are hard to see. This
interesting species varies extensively both in colour and ocellation, though
I have not seen any quite so dark or so well ocellated as the Lancashire
form. Most of the Cumberland specimens may be referred to Dr.
Buckell's ' British middle form.' C. pampM/us, L., Small Heath, occurs
commonly in grassy places everywhere. The var. /y//us, Esp.,
characterized by a black border to the wings, is not scarce. But three
of the ' Hairstreaks ' are to be recorded, and the first, Tiec/a betulce, L.,
Brown Hairstreak, should almost be relegated to the doubtful list, as but
one specimen has occurred, and that at Barron Wood many years ago.
The species does not find a place in Porritt's Yorkshire list nor in
Robson's more comprehensive work on the Lepidoptera of Northumber-
land and Durham. T. quercus, L., Purple Hairstreak, is widely
distributed but local and seldom common, except among the oaks in
Barron "Wood, where it abounds. Also a local species, though usually
to be taken freely when found, T. rubi, L., Green Hairstreak, is one of
our earliest butterflies. It occurs at all the regularly worked stations and
frequents bilberry-covered banks in and near woods, sometimes taking
soaring flights among the pine-tops like its congener quercus does
among the oaks. Polyommatus phleeas, L., Small Copper, is common
as a rule all over the county, especially the August emergence. In
1899 a specimen was taken near Carlisle with a large bleached patch
on the right primary, and in 1894 a fine example of the var. schmidtii,
Gerh., was obtained in the same district.^ Lyccena eegon, Schiff., Silver-
studded Blue, and L. astrarche, Bgstr., Brown Argus, are only recorded
from Keswick and they are far from common. L. icarus, Rott., Common
Blue, is abundant along the coast and in meadows and lanes inland. Some
of the females are very blue, especially those from the coast. Concerning
L. corydon, Fb., Chalk Hill Blue, the late J. B. Hodgkinson wrote (Efit,
vol. xxi. p. 24), ' It used to occur at Grisedale, at the foot of Saddle-
back ; I have seen some specimens taken by the late Mr. Hope of
Penrith.' I cannot add anything to this. L. argio/us, L., Holly Blue,
occurs among holly in the Borrowdale Road and many years ago was
taken at Wetheral by the late T. Armstrong. L. minima, Fues., Small
Blue, usually occurs on railway banks and is locally abundant. Localities
are Wreay, How Mill, Wigton and St. Bees. Nemiobius lucina, L.,
Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, has not been met with since Hodgkinson's
time, when it appears to have occurred in some abundance in Barron
Wood. Two skippers only are known. Nisoniades tages, L., Dingy
Skipper, frequents grassy places and abounds in certain places near
Carlisle. In the Keswick district it is uncommon. It often occurs con-
temporaneously with Euclidia mi, Clerck, and E. glyphica, L. But few
Cumberland lepidopterists appear to have met with H. syhanus, Esp.,
1 A specimen of var. schmidtii was taken last year (1900) near EUenborough. — F. H. D.
121
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Large Skipper, though it occurs annually in tolerable abundance in
meadows near woods in the neighbourhood of Carlisle. Near Keswick
it is rare.
HETEROCERA
Moths
SPHINGES
Acherontia atropos, L., is met with almost every year in one part of
the county or another, but it is never common. The rare brown variety
of the larva has been found in the Brampton district. Sphinx convohuli,
L., is less seldom taken, though three or four specimens were obtained in
Carlisle in 1897. S. ligustri, L., is only recorded from Penrith and
Keswick and is rare. A good many Deilephila galii, SchifF., have
occurred during the last half-century, mostly on the coast about Work-
ington. The most recent captures are one at Hayton near Brampton in
1888 and one at Maryport about the year 1895. Of the very rare D.
livornica, Esp., at least half a dozen captures have come under my notice,
the last being at Heads Nook in June, 1892, the others being from the
neighbourhood of Workington and Maryport on the coast. Gheerocampa
celerio, L., has occurred on several occasions in various parts of the
county. One taken near Keswick may be seen in Keswick Museum.
C. porcellus, L., is not often met with, most captures being made on the
coast. C. elpenor, L., is much commoner, occurring in the same
localities and frequenting various flowers. Smerinthus ocellatus, L., and
populiy L., are both tolerably abundant and are especially fond of an osier-
fringed stream, on which plant the larvae are usually found. S. tilia, L.,
is rare near Keswick. Macroglossa stellatarum, L., though uncertain in
its appearance is met with by most local collectors sooner or later. In
1899 it abounded, and both ova and larvae were freely found on Galium.
Of the Bee Hawks M. bombyliformis (narrow) only occurs, and though
seldom seen is probably commoner than is suspected ; Carlisle and Wan
Fell near Lazonby are localities, where it frequents heathy ground. Very
few ' Clearwings ' have as yet been noticed. Trochilium bembeciformis,
Hb., is rather common in the larval state in the main stems of sallow
bushes in one or two places near Carlisle. Sesia tipuliformis, Clerck, is
found in gardens at Keswick, and is probably overlooked in other parts
of the county. S. myopiformis, Bork., culictformis, L., and formiciformis,
Esp., are recorded from FUmby Wood by the late G. Mawson, whose
records however must be treated with some diffidence. In the Carlisle
district Ino statices, L., occurs in plenty in meadows in June, flying most
readily just before sunset. /. geryon, Hb., is recorded from Keswick by
Barclay, and /. globularics, Hb., from Orton Moss by Kirby, but I have
not myself had an opportunity of examining Cumberland examples and
indeed have considerable doubts of the correctness of the latter record.
Of the ' Burnets' Zygana lonicerce, Esp., has occurred near Keswick, and
Z. Jilipendula^ L., is locally common in most places, preferring as a
habitat damp meadows and railway banks.
122
INSECTS
BOMBYCES
That curious little moth, Sarothripus undulams, Hb., is taken near
Carlisle almost yearly, but in limited numbers and usually after hyber-
nation. Hylophila prasinana^ L., is widely distributed and in some
seasons is not uncommon, flying towards evening among oaks. Nola
cucullatelluy L., and N. confusalis, H.-S., though equally wide in their
distribution are always scarce and have been found resting on tree
trunks. Nudaria mundana, L., frequents walls and rock faces, but is
only of common occurrence here and there. The 'Footmen' are
badly represented in Cumberland. Lithosia mesomella, L., is the only
species which can be called common and it is local to the neighbour-
hood of Carlisle. On a moist, warm evening at midsummer I have
seen it flitting about on a damp heath near the village of Durdar in
immense numbers. L. lurideola, Zinck., has occurred sparingly near
Keswick, and in the same locality the late W. Greenip captured Gnophria
rubrical lis, L., a species which was among Heysham's captures at Black-
well in the early part of the century. G. quadra, L., has probably
occurred at Newby Cross on several occasions, but not to any of the
present school of collectors.^ Eucbelia jacobace, L., formerly very
abundant, is now a rarity from some unexplained cause, though the
capture of four specimens at Maryport during the past season (1900)
and of one near Lazonby makes one hope the species has started on a
new lease of life in Cumberland. A moth characteristic of the moors is
Nemeophila russula, L. The female is not often taken on the wing, but
in breeding one gets the sexes in nearly equal numbers. The larvse are
very active if irritated and can cover the ground at a great pace. N.
plantaginis, L., often occurs in company with the last and is very power-
ful on the wing in the sunshine. Its range extends high up the
mountains.* From Skiddaw larva I have bred the beautiful var. hospita,
SchifF., in which the normal yellow colouration is replaced by white.
Arctia caja, L., is very common in some districts ; in others, such as
Brampton and Keswick, it is seldom seen. Near Carlisle the larvae are
common objects on hedgebanks and also among the Solway sand-dunes.
Spilosoma fuliginosa, L., is generally common, being in my experience
most at home on a heath where there is a rank growth of Ulex, among
the branches of which the larvas love to spin their cocoons, where they
become conspicuous objects, but sometimes take a lot of cutting out.
Most Cumberland specimens are referable to (or closely approach) the
var. borealis, Stgr. aS*. lubricepeda, Esp., is local and in some districts
does not seem to occur at all. About Carlisle it is abundant in gardens,
and the larvas are fond of feeding on the undersides of rhubarb leaves,
but will eat almost anything in a garden, whether wild or cultivated.
S. menthastri, Esp., is generally common, sometimes visiting street lamps
in great numbers. Several specimens of the var. ivalkeri, Curtis, have
1 G. quadra has been taken by Mr. T. Swainson near Maryport during the past year (1900). — F. H. D.
* N.fknta^nU has been taken at great elevations on Scawfell, Great Gable, etc., by Mr. H. Goss. — F. H.D.
123
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
been taken in a lane near Burgh-by-Sands. All the British representatives
of the genus Hepialus occur commonly in the county : humuli, L., and
syhinus, L., in meadows ; velleda, Hb., and its var. gallicus, Ld., on
heaths ; lupulinus, L., in lanes and along hedgebanks ; and hectus, L., in
damp woods. Cossus ligniperda, Fb., is not often taken in the perfect
state, but judging by the number of larva-infested trees in various parts
of the county it cannot be called a scarce species ; oaks are the trees most
favoured. Porthesia similis, Fues., and Leucoma salicis, L., do not appear
to have been noticed for many years. The late T, C. Heysham took
both in the vicinity of CarUsle. A moth characteristic of the wide
stretches of moorland is Dasychira fascelina, L., the pretty larva being
usually found on ling, but in confinement taking readily to such other
plants as birch and hawthorn. It is much pestered by parasites and dead
larvae may be frequently found on the stems of the ling. D. pudibmda,
L., has been found near Keswick and Carhsle but not recently. Orgyia
antiqua, L., is rather pecuHarly distributed. Near CarUsle it is rare, at
least the present school of lepidopterists find it so. On some of the
extensive moors to the north, Bolton Fell for instance, it occurs in great
numbers and about Lazonby and Penrith it is fairly abundant. From
the Brampton district I can only hear of one capture, while near
Keswick it does not appear to be known at all. Trichiura cratagi, L.,
has occurred near Carlisle, Keswick and Cockermouth, but not of late
years apparently. Pcecilocampa populi, L., is spread all over the county
and here and there occurs with tolerable freedom. The moth visits
street lamps in November and December and larvae are beaten from oak
in June. Eriogaster lanestris, L., is recorded from Keswick by Mr. H. A.
Beadle of that town, who also includes Bombyx neustria, L., in his list,
adding that it is rare. This latter species occurred to the late T. C. Hey-
sham near Carlisle, which I fancy will be the northern limit of its range
in the British Islands. On most of the moors at the right season of the
year the scurrying form of B. rubi, L., is a familiar object. It flies
much closer to the ground than its congener B. quercus, L., and while the
latter favours the mid-day sunshine for its flight, B. rubi does not appear
on the wing until late in the afternoon and is most freely seen towards
sunset. It is the var. callunce. Palmer, of B. quercus, L., which occurs
exclusively in Cumberland. On that extensive moorland plateau in the
north of the county known as Bolton Fell it may at times be seen on the
wing in bewildering numbers. It should be mentioned however that
only the males fly during the middle of the day ; I have only noticed
females on the wing in the dusk of evening, when, owing to their pale
colouration, they look tremendous in the uncertain light. Mr. Beadle
records B. trifolii, Esp., from Keswick, but says it is rare. Odonestis
potatoria, L., frequents grassy hedgebanks, and though very common near
Carlisle, in the east of the county and among the lakes appears to be
hardly known. Saturnia pavonta, L., is usually abundant on heaths, the
larvae feeding on a variety of plants ; in confinement hawthorn is taken to
most readily. About two o'clock in the afternoon appears to be the
124
INSECTS
natural time of flight. I only know of two ' Hooktips ' as being satis-
factory natives, viz. Drepana lacertinaria, L., and D. falcataria, L., both
of which are found pretty generally wherever there is any great growth
of birch, on which the larvae feed, spinning the edges of the leaves
loosely together and living inside the tent-like structure thus formed.
Cilix glaucata. Scop., is thinly scattered, most captures of the species
being made when it is on the wing in the evening along whitethorn
hedges. Dicranura vinula, L., is generally distributed and usually
common, while D. furcula, L., is nearly as widely spread but seldom
occurs in any numbers, and D. bifida, Hb., is rare, Keswick and Great
Salkeld being the only places where recent captures have been made.
Mr. Charles G. Barrett in his work on the Lepidoptera of the British
Isles records the very rare D. bicuspis, Bork., but gives no data.
Pterostoma palpina, L., is rather scarce but occurs in most districts.
Lophopteryx camelina, L., is attached to birch and is fairly common. L.
carmelita, Esp., occurs rarely among the lakes. Notodonta dictcea, L., and
N. dictceoides, Esp., are met with throughout the county amongst sallow
and birch respectively. The very variable larva of N. dromedarius, L., is
to be beaten in surprising numbers from stunted birches growing on wet
moors in the Lazonby district ; it is taken elsewhere in small numbers.
N. ziczac, L., is widely distributed and like the other ' prominents ' is
usually taken in the larval state. N. trepida, Esp., is very rare ; one or
two specimens have been captured by the Keswick collectors. N.
chaonia, Hb., is also very rare and is largely confined to the southern
half of the county. Cockermouth is given in Stainton's Manual as a
locality of N. dodonea, Hb., but I cannot learn anything concerning
the source of this record. Occurring everywhere, Phalera bucephala, L.,
is so well known as to call for no remark. P. pigra, Hufn., is at
times extremely common in the larval state on sallow near Carlisle,
despite Barrett's assertion that it occurs 'very rarely in the county.'
The late Thomas Armstrong of Carlisle records P. curtula, L., as
plentiful {Weekly IntelL, vol. vii. p. 30) and Barrett says that Cumberland
' seems to be its northern limit,' but I do not know of its recent
occurrence with us. thyatira batis, L., is fairly common at 'sugar'
everywhere. T. derasa, L., is common at Keswick, which is the only
locality known at present. Cymatophora or, Fb., appears to be nearly
altogether confined to the neighbourhood of Carlisle, where it is a
regular visitor to ' sugar ' in June, and the larvae may be found spun up
in aspen leaves later on in the year. G. duplaris, L., is attached to birch
and is more widely distributed than the last-named. C.fluctuosa, Hb., is
not uncommon near Keswick on the authority of Mr. Beadle.^ Asphalia
diluta, Fb., visits sugared trees in small numbers, while A. flavicornis, L.,
may be found in March resting on the main stems of birch bushes.
A. ridens, Fb., has occurred near Keswick and Cockermouth in very
limited numbers.
1 Mr. H. Goss informs me that he has taken C. fluctuosa at " sugar " on a " moss " near
Keswick.— F. H. D.
125
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
NOCTURE
Bryophila perla, Fb., is found on old walls, often commonly. Demas
coryli, L., is rare, Keswick and Cockermouth being the only localities
where it has been taken. Of the two 'Daggers,' Acronycta tridens, SchifF.,
is reported to occur rarely near Keswick, but A. psi, L., is of universal dis-
tribution. A. leporina, L., is taken at 'sugar' all over the county, and the
beautiful larva, which is green with long snowy-white hairs, is not un-
frequently found and dearly loves a lump of cork to pupate in. A.
megacephala, Fb., and A. ligustri, Fb., though of wide distribution are
somewhat local ; the first-named is attached to willow and poplar, the
latter entirely to ash. One of the most abundant of the genus is A.
rumicis, L., which is a regular visitor to the lepidopterist's treacle patches
in June ; the larva is often found in kitchen gardens feeding on the leaves
of strawberry and raspberry. A. menyanthidis. View., is confined to moors
and heaths, where it is found resting on tree trunks and sometimes on
the bare ground ; the larvas are taken on heath and sweet gale. Diloba
caruleocephala, L., is abundant in the larval state on hawthorn and crab.
Leucania conigera, Fb., and L. lithargyria, Esp., visit flowers pretty freely
in June. L.littoralis, Curt., is said by Stephens to have been taken on the
Cumberland coast by Weaver in 1827, about which period T. C. Hey-
sham is credited with having captured L. impudens, Hb., on Cardew Mire,
but neither species have been heard of since. L. comma, L., L. impura,
Hb., and L. pallens, L., are common in reed beds during the summer.
Tapinostola fulva, Hb., frequents damp meadows, heaths and woods, and
may be noticed in plenty on the wing towards dusk at the end of August.
Red forms are not uncommon. Of that fine species Nonagria arundinis,
Fb., Mr. J. E. Thwaytes took a single specimen at light on the railway
in Carlisle in 1898, but as there is no other Cumberland record it is
possible that this specimen was introduced into the district in a railway
truck. Hydrcecia ntctitans, Bork., is common at most of the stations, and
is fond of visiting the flower heads of black knapweed and devil's-bit-
scabious. H. petasitis, Dbl., has been found amongst butterbur near
Carlisle. H. micaceuy Esp., is very common at the flowers of ragwort and
at ' sugar ' ; pupas may be freely taken at the roots of the common dock.
Axylia putris, L., is rather scarce, and does not appear to have been
noticed at all in the southern half of the county. Xylophasia rurea,
Fb., and its var. combusta, Dup., X. lithoxylea, Fb., and X. monoglypha,
Hufn., are generally abundant ; but X. sublustris, Esp., is confined to
Keswick and Salkeld ; while X. hepatica, L., though occurring in
many places, is seldom common. Dipterygia scabriuscula, L., has not
been seen near Carlisle for some years, but still visits ' sugar ' in Castle
Head Wood, Keswick. Neuronia popularis, Fb., is common at light,
at least the males are, few females being captured. Charceas graminis,
L., is very common in meadows and at street lamps, and on more
than one occasion during the nineteenth century has been known to
do considerable damage to grass pastures. Cerigo matura, Hufn., is rare,
126
INSECTS
most captures being made at light. Luperina testacea, Hb., is rather
local, though usually common where it occurs at all ; it is one of the
most frequent captures at street lamps in Carlisle ; I have found a
good many pupae under stones on the coast. L. cespitis, Fb., also
occurs at light, sparingly however. Mamestra albicolon, Hb., does not
appear to have been met with in Cumberland since Weaver took it in
1827 as recorded by Stephens in the Illustrations. M. abjecta, Hb., and
M. furva, Hb., are found near Keswick, and M. brassicce, L., is every-
where a pest. Apamea basilinea, Fb., and A. gemina, Hb., are taken all
over the county ; the latter varies considerably. A much scarcer species
is A. unanimis, Tr., though of wide distribution ; it is generally taken on
the wing along hedgerows. One of the commonest and most variable
Nocture is A. didyma, Esp., which varies into the most puzzling forms.
All the genus Miana occur, being taken at ' sugar,' flowers or light. Of
M. strigilis, Clerck, the black variety known as cethiops. Haw., is the pre-
dominating form. A red form of M. fasciuncula. Haw., is not
uncommon. M. literosa. Haw., is chiefly met with in the northern half
of the county, and M. bicoloria, VilL, is local, though sometimes it
swarms on thistle heads near Carlisle. M. arcuosa. Haw., occurs freely in
meadows at dusk in many parts of the county. Phothedes captiuncula,TT.,
which is a tolerably common species in the adjoining counties of West-
morland, Northumberland and Durham, has not apparently been found
in Cumberland except by the late George Mawson, who records it as
rather rare in the Cockermouth district. Gelcena haworthii. Curt., is not
uncommon on moorish ground in and near woods where the cotton grass
grows. Grammesia trigrammica, Hufn., without being common, is hardly
a scarce species, though missing from several of the local lists I have
received from collectors for the purposes of this summary of the
entomology of the county. Stilbia anomala. Haw., is a rarity. It is
recorded from Keswick by the late W. Greenip and figures in Mawson's
Cockermouth list ; in July, 1899, Messrs. Britten and Wilkinson each
secured a beautiful specimen on the side of Lazonby Fell. Caradrina
alsines, Brahm, is in the Keswick list as a scarce species. C. taraxaci, Hb.,
is widely distributed and visits ' sugar.' C morpheus, Hufn., abounds in
gardens at Carlisle, visiting various flowers in the evening. C. quadri-
punctata, Fb., is the commonest species of the genus in the county.
Hydrilla palustris, Hb.,^ I have taken twice near Carlisle — the first
specimen in 1896, the second in 1897, both being captured while on the
wing towards evening. It is a fenland insect and its occurrence so far
north is interesting. More interesting still is the fact that these two
Cumberland specimens appear to be the only females recorded from
the British Isles. Rusina tenebrosa, Hb., is a fairly regular summer
visitor to ' sugar,' but few females are taken. Agrotis vestigialis^ Hufn.,
occurs rarely on the coast. A. puta, Hb., and A. ripa, Hb., are said
by Barrett to be rare in the county. A. suffusa, Hb., is not uncommon
in late autumn throughout the county. A. saucia, Hb., has been taken
1 See my notes, Ent. Rec, vol. x. p. no. — F. H. D.
127
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
twice in the east near Brampton by Mr. G. B. Routledge. It also
appears in Mawson's Cockermouth list as ' rare.' Two of the com-
monest species of this genus are A. segetum, SchifF., and A. exclama-
tionis, L., especially the latter. A. nigricans, L., is locally abundant at
the flower heads of ragwort. A. tritici, L., is found both inland and
on the coast. A. aquilina, Hb., is scarce on the coast, but more
diligent collecting would probably turn up this and other Agrotids in
greater numbers than hitherto. A. agathina, Dup., is attached to the
moors, where larvae may be freely swept but are seldom reared. The
moth is at times netted as it flies over the heath. It also visits
' sugar.' A. cinerea, Hb., is recorded from Carlisle by Humphrey and
Westwood (vol. i. p. ii8). A. strigula, Thnb., is another moorland
species, and in a suitable habitat occurs in profusion, flying rapidly over
the heath. Occasionally it visits ' sugar ' in great numbers. A. simulans,
Hufn., is recorded from the county by T. Armstrong and C. S. Gregson.
A. lucernea, L., occurs among the rocks under Falcon Crag near Keswick.
This record is from Mr. Beadle, who says his specimens are 'a dark form.'
A. corticea, Hb., A. cursoria, Bork., A. obelisca, Hb., A. prcecox, L., and
A. obscura, Brahm, all require confirmation as Cumberland natives.
Noctua glareosa, Esp., sometimes swarms at ' sugar ' on the moors, the
specimens when fresh being suffused with pink. N. depuncta, L., has got
very rare of late years in the county. At one time it was abundant and
it is probable that the first British specimens were taken near Carlisle.
Other localities where it occurs are Brampton, Keswick and Salkeld. N.
augur, Fb., N. plecta, L., N. c.-nigrum, L., and N. baia, Fb., are all more
or less abundant. N. triangulum, Hufn., is not uncommon, being usually
taken in the larval state by searching low plants under hedgerows on
warm nights in spring. N. brunnea, Fb,, and N. f estiva, Hb., visit
' sugar ' in summer, the latter varying considerably. Two other summer
species are N. dahlii, Hb., and N. rubi. View., and though widely dis-
tributed are not common. iV". umbrosa, Hb., is fond of visiting the
flowers of reed and is rather common as a rule. N. castanea, Esp.,
abounds on some of the heaths, the drab form known as var. neglecta,
Hb., predominating. N. xanthographa, Fb., is a roadside pest. Triphcena
ianthina^ Esp., is not particularly common, though most collectors meet
with it sooner or later. 5". fimbria, L., is commoner and some lovely
forms are bred from larvs taken in the spring on birch, sloe, etc.
T. comes, Hb., abounds everywhere and so of course does T. pronuba, L.
Amphipyra pyramidea, L., is said by Stephens to have occurred in
Cumberland, and Mawson records it from the west, but I do not know of
any recent captures. A. tragopogonis, L., is common at ' sugar,' in out-
houses, railway wagons and other odd places. Mania typica, L., is
common in and near gardens, while its larger relative, M. maura, L., is a
certain capture at ' sugar ' on trees along the banks of rivers. Panolis
piniperda, Panz., is common in fir plantations and visits sallow bloom in
spring. Pachnobia leucographa, Hb., does not appear to have been noticed
for some years, but P. rubricosa, Fb., is common every spring. Tanio-
128
INSECTS
campa gothica, L., T. incerta, Hufn., T. stabilis. View., and T.puherulenta,
Esp., are very abundant, while 7", opima^ Hb., T. popukti, Fb., and T.
gracilis, Fb,, though nearly as widely distributed are of less frequent
occurrence. T. munda, Esp., is not uncommon near Keswick but scarce
elsewhere. Orthosia suspecta, Hb., is very erratic in its appearance.
Near Carlisle in 1895 it swarmed, but I have not heard of it since, at
any rate in that district. It has also occurred near Keswick and Bramp-
ton. O. upsilon, Bork., occurs sparingly near Keswick. O. lota, Clerck,
and O. macilenta, Hb., are regular autumnal visitors to ' sugar,' along
with Anchocelis rufina, L., and A. litura, L. A. pistacina, Fb., so common
further south, appears to be extremely rare in this county. A. lunosa.
Haw., is usually a scarce species, but Mr. G. B. Routledge took it freely
in 1 878 near the village of Hayton. Cerastis vaccinii, L., and C. spadicea,
Hb., occur throughout the county, the last-named in my experience being
much the scarcer of the two. One of the latest visitors of the year to
' sugar ' is Scope losoma satellita, L., and hibernating is met with again in
the spring. Xanthia citrago, L., is not often noticed, but X. fulvago, L.,
and X.Jlavago, Fb., abound. They may be freely bred from catkins of
sallow. X. circellaris, Hufn., is common at ' sugar ' in the autumn and I
have taken the var. macilenta. Haw. Cirrhcedia xerampelina, Hb., is found
throughout the county in small numbers resting on ash trunks or on gas
lamps at night. Tethea subtusa, Fb., is rare. Mr. George Wilkinson
bred two specimens in 1897 from larvas spun between aspen leaves near
Carlisle. This is the only recent record I can hear of. Cosmia paleacea,
Esp., is very rare, only occurring in Barron Wood. Calymnia trapezina, L.,
is common and variable, but C. affinis, L., appears to be very rare. It
has occurred near Keswick. Dianthcecia conspersa, Esp., is abundant near
Maryport and has occurred in other localities. D. cucubali, Fues., is
always scarce though found all over the county. £). capsincola, Hb., is
common wherever much white campion grows, D. carpophaga, Bork.,
being much scarcer, while D. capsophila, Dup., is scarcer still. Hecatera
serena, Fb., is taken sparingly near Carlisle and Mawson appears to have
met with it in the west. Polia chi, L., is plentiful everywhere, the var.
olivacea, St., occasionally being taken. Carlisle is the only locality in the
county where Dasypolia templi, Thnb., has been found. It frequents
street lamps but is far from common. Epunda lutulenta, Bork., is taken
near Brampton and Carlisle. The vars. luneburgensis, Frr., and sedi, Gn.,
occur as well as the typical form. £. nigra. Haw., is generally diffused
throughout the county and not uncommon. Cleoceris viminalis, Fb.,
varying from the type to var. obscura, Stgr., is sometimes common at
' sugar ' and the larvas may readily be found between united sallow
leaves. Miselia oxyacantha, L., in its typical form is common every-
where. The pups of Agriopii aprilina, L., may be freely dug up at
the roots of oak in August. The variation of this species is in the
direction of a banded form. Euplexia lucipara, L., is a moderately
common summer moth in all the districts which are regularly worked.
The autumn brood of Phlogophora meticulosa, L., is usually very numerous.
I 129 K
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
I have taken a specimen as late as December 17th. Aplecta prasina,
Fb., is widely diffused but seldom common. A. occulta, L., has been
taken sparingly near Brampton by Mr. Routledge. A. nebulosa, Hufn.,
occurs generally, but A. ttncta, Brahm, does not appear to have been
taken away from the lakes, where at times it is not uncommon. Hadena
adusta, Esp., is moderately common throughout the county. One of the
most variable Noctuae is H. protea, Bork., which is always abundant,
while H. glauca, Hb., is scarce and appears to be peculiar to heaths.
H. dentina, Esp., is rather commoner and varies extensively. H.
oleracea, L., abounds in gardens, H. pisi, L., amongst broom, etc., and
H. thalassina, Rott., visits ' sugar' in early summer. H. contigua, Vill.,
is found sparingly near Brampton by Mr. Routledge. The beautiful
H. rectilinea, Esp., was taken near Keswick years ago, and the Carlisle
lepidopterists have taken a fair number quite recently. One of the
earliest Noctuas of the year is Xylocampa areola, Esp., which is readily
found resting on trees, walls, etc., wherever there is much honeysuckle, its
food plant, growing. Calocampa vetusta, Hb., is rare, but C. exoleta, L.,
is universally common. C. solidaginis, Hb., is confined to hilly districts ;
I have taken it on Lazonby Fell, and other localities are Keswick, Gelt
Valley and Penrith Beacon. Asteroscopus sphinx, Hufn., occurs sparingly
at light and I have beaten the larva from crab. Cucullia umbratica, L., is
common at flowers in gardens. C. cbamomillce, Schiff., is sometimes
taken near Carlisle. Gonoptera libatrix, L., visits ' sugar ' or may be
easily bred from larvs taken on sallow and osier. Habrostola tripartita,
Hufn., and H. triplasia, L., occur pretty generally at flowers in gardens
and lanes. The commonest Plusias are P. chrysitis, L., P. iota, L., P.
pulchrina. Haw., and P. gamma, L. P. bractea, Fb., has been taken near
Carlisle by Mr. G. Wilkinson and in other localities by other collectors
but is rare. P. festucce, L., is moderately common. P. interrogationis,
L., occurs among heath on the hills, though it has been found quite close
to Carlisle. A typical heath-loving species is Anarta myrtilli, L., and
as is to be expected in this county of heaths and ' mosses ' is abundant.
It flies rapidly during the heat of the day. Heliaca tenebrata. Scop.,
occurs in meadows, but its short jerky flight easily escapes observation.
Of the very rare Heliothis scutosa, Schiff., two specimens were taken in
Cumberland upwards of sixty years ago. The first of these, which
was also the first British specimen, was captured on the banks of the
Caldew near Dalston in July, 1833; the second being taken on the coast
near Skinburness. It is not improbable that other specimens were
found subsequently but no trace can now be made of any. Chariclea
umbra, Hufn., occurs in a railway cutting near How Mill and will
likely turn up when the coast sandhills are more diligently worked.
Hydrelia uncula, Clerck, does not appear to have been noticed for some
years, though formerly common at Orton when the ' moss ' there was
more extensive than now. Phytometra viridaria, Clerck, is common on
heaths though easily overlooked. Euclidia mi, Clerck, and E. glyphica,
L., haunt grassy places. Rivula sericealis. Scop., is taken near Keswick,
130
INSECTS
but Zanclognatha grisealisy Hb., is widely distributed. Hypena proboscid-
alis, L., swarms amongst nettles. Hypenodes costcestrigalis, St., is picked
up occasionally. Tholomiges turfosalis, Wk., is common in boggy places
near Keswick, and in the same district Brephos parthenias, L., , occurs
amongst birch. This species has also been taken in Barron Wood by
the older school of lepidopterists, who also appear to have met with
B. notha, Hb. (see Morris' British Moths, vol. iii. p. 146).
GEOMETRY
Urapteryx sambucaria, L., is common in and near woods and is a
conspicuous object when on the wing of an evening. Epione apiciaria,
Schiff., is not uncommon in places, and though E. parallellaria, SchifF.,
has been recorded several times I have not myself seen an authentic
Cumberland specimen. Rumia luteolata, L., is one of the commonest
hedgerow moths. Venilia macularia, L., is restricted to the woods of the
southern half of the county. The late G. Mawson records Angerona
prunaria, L., as common near Keswick, but it seems strange that such a
large distinct species should not have been noticed by others. Metro-
campa margaritaria, L., is common in and near woods. Ellopia prosa-
piaria, L., is confined to fir woods and plantations and is often common,
but to be fit for the cabinet must be bred. Eurymene dolobraria, L., is
decidedly rare, though it has been taken in widely separate districts.
Another scarce moth is Pericallia syringaria, L., which has been taken
near Carlisle and Brampton. Selenia bilunaria, Esp., is spread all over the
county, occurring in small woods and along hedgerows. The summer
brood, known as var. juliaria. Haw., is also met with. S. lunaria, SchifF.,
though considerably scarcer, has much the same distribution. S. tetra-
lunaria, Hufn., is rare, while Odontopera bidentata, Clerck, and Crocallis
elinguaria, L., occur everywhere. Eugonia alniaria, L., is taken on street
lamps. E. erosaria, Bork., was taken in 1896 at Keswick and at Carlisle
in 1900. E. fuscantaria. Haw., and E. quercinaria, Hufn., are doubtful
natives of the county. Himera pennaria, L., is a woodland species and
may be found at night on bushes and trees with the aid of a lantern.
Phigalia pedaria, Fb., is common early in the year. Though widely dis-
tributed, Nyssia hispidaria, Fb., is always rare. Two specimens taken by
Mr. H. Britten in the Lazonby district are probably the most recent
captures. Amphydasys strataria, Hufn., is also rather a scarce insect,
being usually taken in oak woods. A. betularia, L., occurs all over the
county in moderate numbers, the black race, var. doubkdayaria. Mill.,
being seldom met with. Cleora glabraria, Hb., has not to my know-
ledge been taken for some years. At one time I believe Barron Wood
produced a good many specimens. The larva of C. lichenaria, Hufn., is
met with in many localities feeding on lichen on trees and is an admir-
able instance of adaptation to environment. Boarmia repandata, L., is
found resting on trees in woods, while B. gemmaria, Brahm, is more
attached to gardens and hedgerows. Considering Tephrosia crepuscu-
laria, Hb., and T. biundularia, Bork., as distinct species, I find that
131
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
the former (the ' brownish insect ') has only been found near Keswick
and that the latter (the ' whitish insect ') is common near Carlisle,
Brampton and Lazonby. The last-named locality is the only one
where T. pmctularia, Hb., occurs in any numbers. Gnophos obscuraria,
Hb., has been taken on Barrow Mountain near Keswick and in Barron
Wood. On rough heaths where furze grows freely Pseudoterpna
pruinata, Hufn., is a sure find. That fine ' Emerald ' Geometra papilio-
naria, L., is fairly common. It flies amongst birch about lo p.m. to-
wards the end of June, but to get really fine specimens they must be
bred. The larva may be found on birch in spring, feeding from the
extremity of a twig down to the main stem of the bush. lodis lactearia,
L., is common in most woods. Zonosoma punctaria, L., and Z. pendularia,
Clerck, are also woodland species. Z. obicularia, Hb., was taken on
Hesket Moss by the late T. C. Heysham, and Z. amulata, Schulz., at
Great Orton by the same enthusiastic naturalist. Hyria muricata, Hufn.,
though occurring in Barron Wood and near Rose Castle in Heysham's
time, appears now to be only taken on peaty bogs near Keswick. Asthena
luteata, SchifF., is to be captured in woods near Carlisle but is not
common. A, candidata, SchifF., is more widely spread and frequents
grassy places amongst trees. A. syhata, Hb., is very rare. A. blomeri.
Curt., is recorded from Barron Wood by J. B. Hodgkinson (JVk. Int.,
vol. vi. p. 156). Eupisteria obliterata, Hufn., occurs sparingly near Car-
lisle ; near Lazonby it is more abundant. Venusia cambrica. Curt., affects
tree trunks in woods, but is seldom taken in any numbers. Acidalia
dimidiata, Hufn., and A. bisetata, Hufn., are woodland and hedgerow
species. A. dilutaria, Hb., and A. immutata, L., are found near Keswick.
A. virgularia, Hb., occurs more generally about honeysuckle, etc. By
far the commonest ' Wave ' of the woods is A. remutaria, Hb. A.fumata,
St., is a ' moss ' species and is not uncommon in a suitable habitat. The
var. spoliata, Stgr., of ^. aversata, L., is generally distributed and common
but the type is rare. A. inornata. Haw., has been once taken near Car-
lisle by Mr. G. Wilkinson. Cabera pusaria, L., and C. exanthemata.
Scop., are common in woods. Macaria notata, L., was taken by Hey-
sham near Kirkandrews-on-Eden. M. liturata, Clerck, is fairly abundant
in fir woods and sometimes visits ' sugar.' Halia vauaria, L., is a common
garden moth, the larva feeding on currant aind gooseberry. Strenia clath-
rata, L., is partial to grassy railway cuttings and sandhills and is locally
abundant. In woods where much bracken grows Panagra petraria, Hb.,
is to be looked for. Numeria pulveraria, L., is found in many woods in
limited numbers. Scodiona belgiaria, Hb., is only taken on the moors.
Every heath in the county harbours Ematurga atomaria, L., and every fir
wood Bupalus piniaria, L. On some of the ' mosses ' Aspillates strigillaria,
Hb., is at times excessively abundant. Abraxas grossulariata, L., is a garden
pest. A. syhata. Scop., occurs in plenty in most woods where there are
many elms. Ligdia adustata, SchifF., has only been taken near Keswick.
Lomaspilis marginata, L., is common amongst sallow. Hybernia rupi-
capraria, Hb., H. leucophearia, SchifF., H. auranttaria, Esp., H. marginaria,
132
INSECTS
Bork., and H. defoliaria, Clerck, are more or less abundant in woods
and hedges. Anisopteryx cescularia^ SchifF., is another common species.
Cheimatobia brumata, L., swarms, and C. boreata, Hb., is fairly common
amongst birch. The variable Oporabia dilutata, Bork., is plentiful in
woods in autumn, its congener O. Jiligrammaria, H.-S., much less so.
Larentia didymata, L., L. multistrigaria. Haw., and L. viridaria, Fb., are
common everywhere. L. ccesiata, Lang, L. salicata, Hb., and L. olivata,
Bork., occur locally in fair numbers. L. Jiavicinctata, Hb., has not been
noticed for some years. Emmelesia qffinitata, St., is rare in woods.
E. alchemillata, L., is more often captured, and E. albulata^ SchifF.,
swarms in meadows. E. decolorata, Hb., occurs amongst campion.
E. taniata, St., and E. unifasciata. Haw., are both rare. E. minor ata^ Tr.,
and E. adcequata, Bork., are confined to hilly districts, and if specially
worked for may be found freely enough. Of the large and perplexing
genus Euphithecia, Curt., E. venosata, Fb., and E. oblongata, Thnb., are
scarce ; E. pulchellaia, St., is bred freely from foxglove ; E. subfuhata.
Haw., is not uncommon amongst ragwort ; E. plumbeolata. Haw., E.
pygmaata, Hb., E. satyrata, Hb., and E. castigata, Hb., occur in
meadows ; E. indigata, Hb., is common in fir woods ; E. nanata, Hb.,
and E. minutata, Gn., swarm on heaths ; E. absinthiata, L., and E. vul-
gata. Haw., are frequent in lanes ; E. assimilata, Gn., inhabits gardens ;
E. tenuiata, Hb., is bred from sallow catkins ; E. lariciata, Frr., is found
in larch woods ; E. abbreviata, St., is beaten from the leafless branches
of oak in March and April ; E. exiguata, Hb., and E. pumilata, Hb., are
taken in various odd places ; E. rectangulata, L., is sometimes caught
along hedges ; and E. togata, Hb., has once been taken in Gelt Woods.
It is highly probable that careful work would considerably extend the
foregoing list of Cumberland ' Pugs.' Lobophora sexalisata, Hb., and
L. carpinata, Bork., are found in many of the woods. L. halterata, Hufn.,
is confined to the neighbourhood of Carlisle, and L. viretata, Hb., and
E. polycommata, Hb., to that of Keswick. Thera simulata, Hb., has been
taken amongst juniper near Barrow Falls, Keswick. T'. variata, SchifF.,
and T^.firmata, Hb., inhabit fir woods. Hypsipetes ruberata, Frr., occurs
locally, and H. sordidata, Fb., of course abounds. Melanthia bicolorata,
Hufn., is locally abundant, especially favouring alders fringing streams.
The var. plumbata. Curt., is rare. M. ocellata, L., generally frequents
lanes, and M. albicillata, L., is partial to woods with an undergrowth of
bramble. Melanippe sociata, Bork., M. montanata, Bork., and M. Jluctuata,
L., are abundant. M. hastata, L., M. tristata, L., M. rivata, Hb., and
M. galiata, Hb., also occur, but are local to special habitats. Anticlea
badiata, Hb., is common along hedges in early spring. A. nigrofasciaria,
Goze, is a woodland species and less common. Coremia munitata, Hb., is
met with in hilly districts. C. designata, Hufn., C. ferrugata, L., and
C. unidentaria. Haw., are widely distributed. Camptogramma bilineata, L.,
abounds in hedges in summer. Phibalapteryx vittata, Bork., has lately
been taken freely in several localities. Triphosa dubitata, L., is local and
scarce. Eucosmia certata, Hb., is locally abundant. Cidaria siterata,
133
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Hufn., and C. miata, L., visit ' sugar' in autumn. C. corylata, Thnb., is
a common moth in some woods. C. truncata, Hufn., C. immanata. Haw.,
C.fuhata, Forst., C. testata, L., C. populata, L., C. dotata, L. {pyraliata,
Fb.), C. associata, Bork. {dotata, Gn.), C. prunata, L., and C suffiimata,
Hb., are all more or less common. The var. piceata, St., of the last
species is occasionally captured. C. silaceata, Hb., though generally
diffused is always scarce. C. reticulata, Fb., probably now on the verge
of extinction as a British insect, was formerly taken in the Great Wood,
Keswick, by the late James Edmondson. Pelurga comitata, L., is hardly
known in the county away from Carlisle, where it sometimes visits light
freely. Eubolia cervinata, SchifF., is local and scarce ; E. limitata. Scop.,
common everywhere. The reputed ' only ' British specimen of E.
mceniata. Scop., was taken in Barron Wood many years ago. I do not
know if this specimen is still in existence, but the late J. B. Hodgkinson
used to have it. E. plumbaria, Fb., is common on heaths and waste
places. Carsia paludata, Thnb., is common on some of the moors.
Anaitis plagiata, L., is rather scarce. Chesias spartiata, Fues., is abundant
amongst broom. C. rufata, Fb., has been taken once at Hayton. Tan-
agra atrata, L., is abundant in meadows in summer.
PYRALIDES
Aglossa pinguinalis, L. Common in stables
Pyralis farinalis, L. In stables, flour-mills,
etc.
Scoparia ambigualis, Tr.
— basistrigalis, Knaggs. Borrowdale ; rests
on rocks, etc.
— cembrae, Haw.
— murana, Curt. Moderately common ;
occurs on walls
— ingratella, Zell.
— crataegella, Hb.
— resinea, Haw. Lake distrtct ; common
(Stainton's ManuaT)
— truncicolella, Sta. Common everywhere
— angustea, St. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
Nomophila noctuella, Schiff. Common every-
where
Pyrausta aurata, Scop. Lake district ; common
(Stainton's Manual)
— purpuralis, L. Abundant on the Silloth
sandhills
— ostrinalis, Hb. Keswick (Stainton's Man-
ual)
Herbula cespitalis, Schiff. Sparingly in mea-
dows ; Carlisle
Ennychia cingulata, L. Very common on
grassy hillsides near Seathwaite-in-Bor-
rowdale
— nigrata, Scop. \ Lake district (Stain-
— octomaculata, Fb. J ton's Manual)
Eurrhypara urticata, L. Abundant in nettle-
beds everywhere
Scopula lutealis, Hb. Very common every-
where
— olivalis, Schiff. ) t j i
T c -u-ir r In and near woods
— prunalis, Schitt. )
Botys fuscalis, Schiff. Swarms in meadows
throughout the county
Pionea forficalis, L. Common in gardens
TT 1 u ^ T ) Common round
Hydrocampa nymphseata, L.
— stagnata, Don.
the margins
of ponds
PTEROPHORI
Chrysocoris festaliella, Hb. Rare ; Hayton
Moss and Kingmoor
Platyptilia ochrodactyla, Hb. Common
amongst yarrow
— gonodactyla, Schiff. Abundant amongst
coltsfoot, especially on railway banks.
Larvae may be found freely in early
spring in the flowers
Amblyptilia acanthodactyla, Hb. On heaths,
etc.
— cosmodactyla, Hb. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
Mimasseoptilus bipunctidactyla,] ^ VIA'
— plagiodactylus, Sta. I ^''"^
— pterodactylus, L. Common along hedge-
rows
CEdematophorus lithodactylus, Tr. Kingmoor
Leioptilus osteodactylus,
Zell.
Aciptilia tetradactyla, L.
34
Lake district (Stain-
ton's Manual)
INSECTS
Aciptilia pentadactyla, L. Apparently rare
in the county. Two have been taken
near Carlisle^ and it has also occurred
sparingly near Lazonby
Alucita hexadactyla, L. Common every-
where amongst honeysuckle ; often
seen on windows in houses
CRAMBI
Crambus pratellus, L. Everywhere common
in meadows
— ericellus, Hb, A mountain species. Not
uncommon on some of the lake moun-
tains ; Honister Crag, Sty Head Pass, etc.
— sylvellus, Hb. Common on that exten-
sive heath known as Bolton Fell in the
north of the county. It is however
very local there and easily overlooked
— pascuellus, L. Locally abundant on damp
heaths
— furcatellus, Zett. Another mountain
species. Occurs in the same localities
as C. ericellus, but, if anything, is a
scarcer insect
— margaritellus, Hb. Sometimes swarms on
some of the moors
— perlellus. Scop. Widely distributed
— perlellus var. warringtonellus, Zell.
Occurs near Carlisle
— tristellus, Fb. Everywhere abundant
— geniculeus. Haw. Local, but common at
times ; La%onhy Fell, Silloth, etc.
— culmellus, L. "1 Very common every-
— hortuellus, Hb. / where in meadows
Eromene ocellea. Haw. Mr. C. Eales cap-
tured two specimens at Silloth on 27 th
June, 1885
Ephestia passulella, Bar. About houses
— kuhniella, Zell. Very common in mills
in Carlisle
Cryptoblabes bistriga, Haw. One near Carlisle
in June, 1897
Plodia interpimctella, Hb. Not uncommon
in some of the Carlisle mills
Phycis fusca. Haw. Common on heaths
which have been recently burnt
Dioryctria abietella, Zinck. Taken on La-
zonby Fell July 30th, 1899, by Mr.
Wilkinson. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
Oncocera ahenella, Zinck. Lake district (Stain-
ton's Manual)
Galleria mellonella, L.
Aphomia sociella, L.
TORTRICES
Tortrix xylosteana, L. Common near Carlisle ;
visits * sugar.'
— sorbiana, Hb. J ^^^^.^^^
Carlisle ; common
Carlisle ; common
Tortrix heparana, Schiff.
— ribeana, Hb. Carlisle
— corylana, Fb.
— unifasciana, Dup.
— viburnana, Fb. Very common on Lazonby
Fell, Bolton Fell and other moors
— palleana, Hb. var. icterana, Fr6l. Abun-
dant on the steep slopes of Cowran Cut
to the east of How Mill
— viridana, L. Common everywhere
— minstrana, L. Common everywhere ;
very variable
— forsterana, Fb. Not uncommon in woods
Amphisa gerningana, SchiflF. Taken freely
on Kingmoor near Carlisle, in July,
1900, by Mr. Wilkinson
— prodromana, Hb. Rare near Carlisle, but
occurs more freely amongst heath right
to the summit of Cumrew Fell (1,500
feet) in the Pennines
Leptogramma literana, L. Scarce ; woods
near Carlisle
Peronea sponsana, Fb. Scarce ; Carlisle
— rufana, SchifF. Not uncommon
— mixtana, Hb. On several heaths near
Carlisle
— schalleriana, L. Common everywhere
along hedgerows
Common near Carlisle
in woods and along
hedges
Common and variable
comparana, Hb.
perplexana. Bar.
rosana, L.
— variegana, SchifF.
— cristana, Fb. Scarce ; taken at sallow
bloom in spring after hibernation
— hastiana, L. Scarce
— ferrugana, Tr. Common in lanes near
Carlisle
— aspersana, Hb. Common
Rhacodia caudana, Fb. Very common in
woods and lanes throughout the county.
Beautiful varieties occur
Teras contaminana, Hb. Common in white-
thorn hedges
Dictyopteryx loeflingiana, L. Common
— holmiana, L. Rather common near Mary-
port
— bergmanniana, L. Common amongst
rose
— forskaleana, L. One at Wetheral, 1900
Argyrotoza conwayana, Fb. Scarce ; Carlisle
Ptycholoma lecheana, L. Not uncommon
near Carlisle ; bred from sallow, etc.
Diluta semifasciana. Haw. Occurs yearly,
but sparingly
Penthina corticana, Hb. Scarce
— betulastana, Haw. In profusion amongst
birch
— sororculana, Zett.
— pruniana, Hb. Common amongst sloe
— dimidiana, Tr. Scarce ; Bowness Moss, etc.
135
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Penthina marginana, Haw. One specimen
near Carlisle
Heyda aceriana, Dup.
— dealbana, Frol. Common amongst sallow
Spilonota trimaculana, Haw.
Pardia tripunctana, Fb, Very common in
hedges
Aspis udmanniana, L. Occurs throughout
the county, but is hardly a common
insect
Sericoris rivulana, Scop. Locally common
near Carlisle
— lacunana, Dup. "> ,,
'tj-, ^ \ Very common
— urticana, Hb. J •'
— micana, Frol. In profusion in a certain
meadow near Carlisle ; also in other
localities, but uncommon
Mixodia schulziana, Fb. Very common on
the moors
Orthotaenia antiquana, Hb.
— ericetana, Westw.
Cnephasia musculana, Hb. Common
Sciaphila conspersana, Dougl. In rough mea-
dows
— subjectana, Gn. Common everywhere
— virgaureana, Tr.
— pascuana, Hb.
— chrysantheana, Dup.
— hybridana, Hb.
— octomaculana, Haw.
Capua flavillaceana, Hb. In woods
Bactra lanceolana, Hb. Common in damp
places ; very variable
Phoxopteryx unguicella, L. Not uncommon
on heaths
— uncana, Hb. Also a heath species, but
scarce
— biarcuana, St.
— myrtillana, Tr.
— lundana, Fb. Everywhere abundant
— mitterpacheriana, Schiff. Sparingly in
woods
Grapholitha ramella, L. Very common
amongst birch
— nisella, Clerck.
— nigromaculana, Haw. One taken at S/7-
loth in 1892 on a head of ragwort
— subocellana, Don. Common amongst
sallow
— penkleriana, Fisch. Not very common
— naevana, Hb. Common near Lazonby
Phloeodes tetraquetrana. Haw. Common in
and near woods
— immundana, Fisch. Freely bred from
alder catkins
— crenana, Hb. Rare ; one specimen taken
by Mr. Wilkinson at Threlkeld and one
at Sebergham
Hypermecia angustana, Hb.
— cruciana, L.
136
Paedisca bilimana, Haw. One specimen taken
on a birch trunk near Carlisle in 1896
— rubiginosana, H.-S. Scarce, in fir planta-
tions
— corticana, Hb. Generally abundant
amongst oak
— occultana, Dougl. One taken in the
Lazonby district in 1899
— solandriana, L. Sometimes not uncom-
mon in and near woods ; very variable
Ephippiphora similana, Hb.
— cirsiana, Zell. \ Common amongst
— pflugiana. Haw. J rough herbage
— brunnichiana, Frol. Common amongst
coltsfoot
— turbidana, Tr. Carlisle (Stainton's Man-
ual)
Coccyx cosmophorana, Tr. This interesting
species occurs yearly in fair numbers in
one of the fir woods near Carlisle
— strobilella, L. Gelt Woods
— splendidulana, Gn. Carlisle
— argyrana, Hb. Abundant on oak trunks
— tsedella, Clerck.
Heusimene fimbriana, Haw. One specimen
taken near Carlisle in an oak wood
Retinia turionana, Hb. Very common on
young fir trees. Pupae may be freely
found in the terminal shoots of the
branches
— pinivorana, Zell. Occurs sparingly among
firs near Carlisle
Carpocapsa splendidana, Hb.
Stigmonota dorsana, Fb. This rare species
has been taken yearly by Mr. Wilkinson
and others on a railway bank near
Carlisle. In 1900 it turned up in
great numbers on another railway bank
in quite a diiFerent district
— coniferana, Ratzb. Near Carlisle ; scarce
— perlepidana, Haw. Very common
— internana, Gn. Not uncommon in some
seasons near Carlisle
— nitidana, Fb.
— regiana, Zell. Very common on syca-
more trunks in the Lazonby district
Dicrorampha petiverella, L. Sometimes
abundant amongst yarrow
— plumbana, Scop, "j p
— herbosana, Bar. j ^
Pyrodes rheediella, Clerck. Scarce ; Carlisle,
Allonby, Cross Fell
Catoptria ulicetana, Haw. Abundant every-
where amongst furze
■^— hypericana, Hb.
— cana. Haw. Locally common near Car-
lisle
Symsethis pariana, Clerck. Lake district
(Stainton's Manual)
— oxycanthella, L. Swarms amongst nettles
INSECTS
EupcEcilia nana, Haw. Not uncommon
— angustana, Hb. Very common on moors
— atricapitana, St. Scarce
— maculosana, Haw. A few taken amongst
wild hyacinth in Newbiggen Wood in
— ciliella, Hb. Locally common near Car-
lisle
Zanthosetia zoegana, L. Not very common
— hamana, L. Commoner than the last
Lobesia reliquana, Hb.
Argyrolepia hartmanniana, Clerck.
— cnicana, Dbl. Marshy places
Conchylis straminea, Haw. Common in
meadows
Aphelia osseana, Scop.
Tortricodes hyemana, Hb. Very common
everywhere
TINE^
Lemnatophila phryganella, Hb.
Exapate congelatella, Clerck.
Diurnea fagella, Fb. Very common every-
where ; some very dark forms are
taken
Epigraphia steinkellneriana, SchifiF. Not un-
common in lanes
Semioscopus avellanella, Hb. "
Talseporia pseudo-bombycella, Lake district
Hb. (Stainton's
Diplodoma marginepunctella, Manual)
St. }
Ochsenheimeria birdella, Curt. Near Carlisle ;
scarce
Scardia corticella, Curt. ") Lake district (Stain-
— granella, L. J ton's Manual)
— cloacella, Haw. Very common
Blabophanes rusticella, Hb. Common in
birds' nests
Tinea tapetzella, L. In houses
— misella, Zell. Common in a stable in
Carlisle
— pellionella, L. In houses
— fuscipunctella, Haw.
— pallescentella, Sta.
— lapella, Hb. Scarce
Phylloporia bistrigella, Haw. Lake district
(Stainton's Manual)
Tineola biselliella, Hml.
Lampronia luzella, Hb.
— praelatella, SchifiF. 5- Carlisle district
— rubiella, Bjerk.
Incurvaria muscalella, Fb. Along hedgerows
— oehlmanniella, Hb. On heaths
)
. Common on oak
Not uncommon near
Note. — ^The records from Stainton's Manual apply
to the Lake district of both Cumberland and West-
morland. — F. H. D.
Micropteryx calthella, L. Very common in
flowers of Caltha palustris in marshy
places
— seppella, Fb. Near Wreay, etc.
— mansuetella, Zell. Once in Newbiggen
Wood
— aureatella, Scop. Very common in damp
woods
— thunbergella, Fb. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
— purpurella, Haw.
— semipurpurella, St. ■ Common on birch
— unimaculella, Zett.,
— sparmanella, Bosc.
— subpurpurella, Haw
— sangiella, Wood.
Carlisle
— caledoniella Griffith. Taken freely near
Carlisle by Hodgkinson and Eales. Mr.
Wilkinson has lately turned it up in a
new locality in the Carlisle district
Nemophora swammerdammella, L. Common
in woods
— schwarziella, Zell. Common in woods
— pilella, Fb. "I Lake district (Stainton's
Adela fibulella, Fb. / Manual)
— rufimitrella, Scop. Not uncommon near
Carlisle
— degeerella, L. In woods near Carlisle ;
scarce
— viridella, L. Common
Nematois cupriacellus, Hb. Lake district
(Stainton's Manual)
Swammerdamia combinella, Hb.
— caesiella, Hb.
— pyrella, Vill. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
Hyponomeuta padellus, L. Very common
— cagnagellus, Hb. Wetheral
— evonymellus, L. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
Anesychia funerella, Fb. Lake district (Stain-
ton's Manual)
Prays curtisellus, Don. ") ^ ,. ■
— „ var. rustica, Haw.)
Plutella cruciferarum, Zell. Very common
— porrectella, L.
— dalella, Sta. Lake district, common
(Stainton's Manual)
Cerostoma sequella, Clerck. Lake district
(Stainton's Manual)
— radiatella, Don. In and near woods
— vitella, L.
— costella, Fb. Common in woods
— sylvella, L. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
Harpipteryx scabrella, L. \ q^^^^i^
— nemorella, L. j
— xylostella, L. Common about honey-
suckle
137
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Common amongst furze
„ „ broom
Lake district (Stainton's
Amongst hem-
Amongst sallow
Lake district (Stainton's
Orthotelia sparganella, Thnb. Carlisle ; near
ponds
Phibalocera quercana, Fb. Not uncommon
in and near woods
Exaeretia allisella, Sta. Lake district (Stain-
ton's Manual)
Depressaria costosa, Haw. Amongst furze
— flavella, Hb. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
— umbellana, St.
— assimilella, Tr.
— arenella, SchifF.
— propinquella, Tr.
Manual)
— alstrcemeriana, Clerck,
lock
— liturella, Hb.
— ocellana, Fb.
— yeatiana, Fb,
Manual)
— applana, Fb. Common everywhere
— ciliella, Sta. ^ Lake district (Stainton's
— pimpinellas, Zell.j Manual)
— pulcherrimella, Sta. Lake district ; com-
mon (Stainton's Manual)
— badiella, Hb.
— heracleana, De Geer. Very common
near Carlisle
Gelechia ericetella,
heath
— mulinella, Zell.
— sororculella, Hb.
— longicornis, Curt
near Carlisle
— difEnis, Haw. Lake district ; common
(Stainton's Manual)
— confinis, Sta. Armathwaite (J. B. Hodg-
kinson)
Bryotropha terrella, Hb. Common in
meadows
— desertella, Dougl. Common on the Bol-
way sandhills
— politella, Dougl.
— senectella, Zell. Silloth
— afEnis, Dougl. Very common on a mossy
wall on the road between Carlisle and
Blackwell
Lita viscariella, Logan
— aethiops, Westw. Common on Bowness
Moss, Cumrevj Fell, etc. ; amongst
burnt heath
— maculea, Haw. Silloth
— fraternella, Dougl.
— junctella, Dougl.
Carrock by Mr.
— marmorea, Haw.
Teleia proximella, Hb.
— notatella, Hb.
— vulgella, Hb. Sty Head Pass ; com-
mon
Nannodia stipella, Hb.
— „ var. naeviferella, Dup.
on hemlock
Hb. Abounds on every
Sparingly on heaths
Taken near Castle
G. B. Routledge
Silloth
Teleia dodecella, L.
Lake district
(Stainton's
Manual)
Ergatis ericinella, Dup. On heaths
Monochroa tenebrella, Hb. Lake district
(Stainton's Manual)
Tachyptilia populella, Clerck. Common near
Carlisle
Brachycrossata cinerella, Clerck. Com-
mon
Chelaria hubnerella, Don. Very common in
Orton Woods amongst old birches
Anarsia spartiella, Schr. On commons and
waste land
Sophronia humerella, SchiiF. One specimen
near Carlisle
Pleurota bicostella, Clerck. Swarms on many
of the heaths
Dasycera sulphurella, Fb. Not uncommon
CEcophora minutella, L.
— fulviguttella, Zell. Common amongst
Umbelliferas
— stipella, L. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
— subaquilella, Edl. Once near Carlisle
— fuscescens, Haw.
— pseudospretella, Sta. Everywhere abun-
dant ; a nuisance in houses
Endrosis fenestrella, Scop. Very common in
houses
Butalis grandipennis, Haw. Common amongst
furze
— fusco-asnea, Haw.
— senescens, Sta. Lake district
— fusco-cuprea, Haw. - (Stainton's
Amphisbatis incongruella, Sta. Manual)
Pancalia lewenhoekella, L.
Glyphipteryx fuscoviridella, Haw, Very
common in meadows
— thrasonella, Scop. Not uncommon
— haworthana, St. "S Lake district (Stainton's
— equitella, Scop, j Manual)
— fischeriella, Zell. Common ; Carlisle,
etc.
Perittia obscurepunctella, Sta. In woods ;
not uncommon
Heliozele sericiella, Haw. -v Lake district
— stanneella, Fisch. !- (Stainton's
— resplendella, Dougl. ■' Manual)
Argyresthia ephippella, Fb.
— nitidella, Fb. Extremely abundant on
hawthorn hedges
— semitestacella, Curt. Common near Car-
lisle
Lake district (Stainton's
spiniella, Zell.
Manual)
albistria, Haw.
conjugella, Zell.
retinella, Zell.
All occur near Carlisle,
etc.
138
INSECTS
Lake district
(Stainton's
Manual)
Common amongst
Argyresthia semifusca, Haw. '
— mendica, Haw.
— glaucinella, Zell.
— dilectella, Zell.
— curvella, L.
— sorbiella, Tr.
— pygmaeella, Hb.
sallow near Carlisle
— gcedartella, L. Common on trunks of
alders ; Carlisle
— brochella, Hb. Common amongst birch ;
Carlisle
Cedestis farinatella, Dup. Not uncommon in
fir woods
Ocnerostoma piniariella, Zell. Amongst
firs
Gracilaria alchimiella, Scop. Very common
in almost every wood in the county
— stigmatella, Fb. Burgh-by-Sands
— stramineella, Sta. Wreay
— elongella, L. Carlisle
— tringipennella, Zell.
— syringella, Fb.
— auroguttella, St.
Coriscium brongniardellum, Fb. )
— cuculipennellum, Hb. J
Lake district
(Stainton's
Manual)
All occur in the
Carlisle district
Ornix anglicella, Sta.
— torquillella, Sta.
— scoticella, Sta.
— loganella, Sta. |
— guttea, Haw. )
Goniodoma auroguttella, Fisch.
Coleophora deauratella, Lien. Lake district
(Stainton's Manual)
— alcyonipennella, Kol. Carlisle ; on Cen-
taurea nigra
— pyrrhulipennella, Tisch. Common on the
heaths
— albicosta, Haw.
— currucipennella, Fisch.
— discordella, Zell. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
— genistae, Sta. Kingmoor ; on Genista
anglica
— caespititiella, Zell. Swarms amongst reeds
everywhere
— laripennella, Zett. Lake district (Stain-
ton's Manual)
— laricella, Hb. Swarms on larch everywhere
— nigricella, St. Common on hawthorn ;
Carlisle
— fuscedinella, Zell. On birch, etc. ;
common
— gryphipennella, Bouch^, On rose ; Car-
lisle
— viminetella, Heyd. \ Lake district
— lutipennella, Zell. i (Stainton's Manual)
Batrachedra praeangusta. Haw. Locally
common near Carlisle amongst sallow
Chauliodus chaerophyllellus, G6ze. Lake dis-
trict (Stainton's Manual)
Laverna lacteella, St. Carlisle
— propinquella, Sta. \ Lake district
— epilobiella, Schr. I (Stainton's Manual)
— atra, Haw.
Chrysoclysta aurifrontella, Hb. Amongst
hawthorn
Anybia langiella, Hb. \Lake district {^iMn-
Elachista gleichenella, Fb. ) ton's Manual)
— magnificella, Tgstr. Corby (J. B. Hodg-
kinson)
— apicipunctella, Sta. Lake district (Stain-
ton's Manual)
— albifrontella, Hb.
— atricomella, Sta. ■ Carlisle
— luticomella, Zell.
— cinereopunctella, Haw.-v Lake district ;
— kilmunella, Sta. V common (Stain-
— bedellella, Sircom. J ton's Manual)
— trapeziella, H.-S. Corby (C. Eales)
— nigrella, Hb. Lazonby, etc.
— obscurella, Sta. \ /- r i
• II "-n .. r i^ar lisle
— zonanella, T gstr. )
— adscitella, Sta.) Lake district (Stainton's
— cerussella, Hb. I Manual)
— rhynchosporella, Sta. Lazonby
— eleochariella, Sta. Lake district (Stainton's
Manual)
— biatomella, Sta.
— rufocinerea. Haw. ) Abundant every-
— argentella, Clerck. J where
Tischeria complanella, Hb. Not uncommon
Lithocolletis roboris, Zell. Lake district
(Stainton's Manual)
— amyotella, Dup.
— irradiella, Scott. Common on oak
— pomifoliella, Zell. i q^ ^^^^j^
— faginella, Mann. J
— ulmifoliella, Hb.
— spinolella, Dup. Kingmoor ; on sallow
— quercifoliella, Fisch.
— messaniella, Zell. TJpperby ; on beech
— corylifoliella, Haw,
— caledoniella, Sta.
Manual)
— viminiella, Sircom.
— alnifoliella, Hb.
heegeriella, Zell. \
Lake district (Stainton's
Common on oak
Lake district
\
— cramerella, Fb.
— emberizaepennella, Bouch6|
— dunningiella, Sta.
— tristrigella. Haw.
— trifasciella, Haw.
Lyonetia clerckella, L
Cemiostoma spartifoliella, Hb,
broom ; Carlisle, etc.
— laburnella, Heyd. Extremely abundant
laburnums in and near Carlisle
(Stainton's
Manual)
Orton
\Lake district (Stain-
J ton's Manual)
Common on
on
139
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Cemiostoma scitella, Zell. Bellevue and
Durdar near Carlisle
Opostega crepusculella, Fisch. Near Cum-
mersdale
Bucculatrix nigricomella, Zell. Lake district ;
common (Stainton's Manual)
Nepticula atricapitella, Haw.
— anomalella, Goze.
— floslactella, Haw.
— salicis, Sta.
— argentipedella, Zell.
— angulifasciella, Sta.
— aeneofasciella, H.-S.
All occur in the
Carlisle district
DIPTERA
Flies
This large order of insects consisting of two-winged flies has very
few students in the British Isles, and in Cumberland it has been quite
neglected, so that the following list of species, hurriedly collected for the
purposes of the present work, can hardly be said to be representative of
the county's fauna. With few exceptions the whole of the species
enumerated have been taken in the neighbourhood of Carlisle by myself.
BiBIONIDi?:
Bibio pomonae, F.
— marci, L.
— laniger, Mg. (?)
— lacteipennis, Ztt. (F. Milton)
Dilophus febrilis, L.
CULICID^
Culex pipiens, L.
Ptychopterid^
Ptychoptera lacustris, Mg.
TiPULIDJE
Pachyrrhina crocata, L.
Tipula confusa, V. de Wlp.
— vernalis, Mg. (F. Milton)
— vittata, Mg.
— oleracea, L.
Xiphura atrata, L.
STRATIOMYIDiE
Sargus infuscatus, Mg.
Chloromyia Formosa, Scop.
Microchrysa flavicornis, Mg.
Beris vallata, Forst.
TaBANIDjE
Hasmatopota pluvialis, L.
Tabanus bovinus, L.
Chrysops caecutiens, L.
Leptid^
Leptis scolopacea, L.
— tringaria, L.
Chrysophilus aureus, Mg.
Atherix ibis, F.
AsiLID^
Dioctria rufipes, Deg.
Dysmachus forcipatus, L.
Isopogon brevirostris, Mg.
BoMBYLIDiE
Bombylius major, L.
THEREVIDiE
Thereva annulata, F.
Empid^
Hybos grossipes, L.
Empis tessellata, F.
— livida, L.
— trigramma, Mg.
LONCHOPTERID^
Lonchoptera tristis, Mg.
SyRPHIDjE
Chrysogaster metallica, F.
Chilosia grossa. Fin.
— oestracea, L.
Leucozona lucorum, L,
Melanostoma scalare, F.
Pyrophaena ocymi, F.
Platychirus manicatus, Mg. (?)
— albimanus, F.
— scutatus, Mg.
— angustatus, Ztt.
Syrphus balteatus, Deg.
— nitidicollis, Mg.
— vitripennis, Mg.
— ribesii, L.
— cinctus, Fin.
Catabomba pyrastri, L.
Sphasrophoria dispar, Lw.
— menthastri, L. (?)
Baccha elongata, F.
Rhingia rostrata, L.
Volucella bombylans, L.
— pellucens, L.
Sericomyia borealis, Fin.
Eristalis tenax, L.
— intricarius, L.
— arbustorum, L.
— pertinax, Scop.
Helophilus pendulus, L.
Criorrhina berberina, F.
Xylota sylvarum, L.
Syritta pipiens, L.
140
INSECTS
CoNOPIDiE
Conops flavipes, L.
Sicus ferrugineus, L.
Myopa buccata, L.
MusciDiE
Gymnochaeta viridis, Fin.
Epicampocera vulgaris, Fin.
Oliviera lateralis, F.
Micropalpus vulpinus, Fin.
Erigone radicum, F.
Tachina grossa, L.
Servillia ursina, Mg.
Sarcophaga carnaria, L.
PoUenia rudis, F.
Musca doniestica, L.
Graphomyia maculata, Scop.
Cyrtoneura curvipes, Mcq.
Mesembrina meridiana, L.
Lucilia cornicina, F.
— caesar, L.
Anthomyid^
Mydaea impuncta, Fin,
Hydrophoria brunneifrons, Ztt. (?)
Caricea trigrina, F.
CORDYLURID^
Scatophaga stercoraria, L.
SciomyzidjE
Tetanocera ferruginea, Fin.
PsiLID^
Psila fimetaria, L.
Trypetidje
Tephritis vespertina, Lw.
— miliaria, Schrk.
— leontodontis, Deg.
Sepsid^
Sepsis punctum, F.
— cynipsea, L.
BoRBORIDjE
Borborus vitripennis, Mg. (?)
HEMIPTERA
HETEROPTERA
Bugs, etc.
GTMNOCERATA
PENTATOMINA
Pentatomid^
Piezodorus, Fieb.
— lituratus, Fab.
Tropicoris, Hahn.
— rufipes, Lin.
AsOPID^
Picromerus, Am. S.
— bidens, Lin.
Asopus, Burm.
— punctatus, Lin.
Zicrona, Am. S.
— cjerulea, Lin.
ACANTHOSOMID^
Acanthosoma, Curt.
— dentatum, De G.
— interstinctum, Lin.
LYG^INA
LYG-ffilDiE
Nysius, Dall.
— thymi, WolflF
Pachymerid^
Stygnus, Fieb.
— rusticus. Fall.
— pedestris. Fall.
— arenarius, Hahn.
Peritrechus, Fieb.
— luniger, Schill.
Pachymeridje {continued) —
Drymus sylvaticus, Fab.
— brunneus, Sahib.
Scolopostethus, Fieb.
— affinis, Schill.
— decoratus, Hahn.
Gastrodes, Westw.
— ferrugineuSj Lin.
TINGIDINA
TiNGIDIDiE
Monanthia, Lep.
— cardui, Lin.
HYDROMETRINA
HYDROMETRIDiE
Hydrometra, Latr.
— stagnorum, Lin.
Veliidje
Velia, Latr.
— currens. Fab.
GERRIDiE
Gerris, Fab.
— costae, H.S.
— gibbifera, Schum.
REDUVIINA
Nabid^
Nabis, Latr.
— flavomarginatus, Scholtz.
— limbatus, Dahlb.
141
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND '
SALDINA
Salda, Fab.
— saltatoria, Lin.
— „ var. vestita, D. & S.
— c.-album, Fieb.
— orthocila, Fieb.
— scotica, Curt.
— cincta, H.S.
CIMICINA
Anthocorid^
Lyctocoris
— campestris, Fall.
Temnostethus, Fieb.
— pusillus, H.S.
Anthocoris, Fall.
— confusus, Reut.
— nemoralis, Fab.
— sarothamni, D. & S.
— sylvestris, Lin.
Acompocoris, Reut.
— pygmaeus, Fall.
MicrophysidjE
Microphysa, Westw.
— pselaphiformis, Curt.
CAPSINA
CapsidjE
Pithanus, Fieb.
— maerkeli, H.S.
Miris, Fab.
— calcaratus, Fall.
— holsatus, Fab.
Megaloceroea, Fieb.
— ruficornis, Fourc.
Leptoterpna, Fieb.
— dolobrata, Lin.
Monalocoris, Dahlb.
— filicis, Lin.
Bryocoris, Fall.
— pteridis, Fall.
Phytocoris, Fall.
— populi, Lin.
— tiliae, Fab.
— ulmi, Lin.
Calocoris, Fieb.
— striatellus, Fab.
— sexguttatus, Fab.
— bipunctatus, Fab.
Capsid^ {continued) —
Calocoris chenopodii, Fall.
— roseomaculatus, De G.
— striatus, Lin.
Lygus, Hahn.
— pratensis, Fab.
— contaminatus, Fall.
— viridis, Fall.
— lucorum, Mey.
— pabulinus, Lin.
— cervinus, H.S.
— kalmii, Lin.
Liocoris, Fieb.
— tripustulatus, Fab.
Rhopalotomus, Fieb.
— ater, Lin.
Cyllocoris, Hahn.
— histrionicus, Lin.
Mecomma, Fieb.
— ambulans, Fall.
Orthotylus, Fieb.
— chloropterus, Kb. (?)
— ericetorum, Fall. (?)
Macrotylus, Fieb.
— paykulli, Fall.
Phylus, Hahn.
— melanocephalus, Lin.
Psallus, Fieb.
— betuleti, Fall.
— variabilis, Fall.
— varians, H.S.
Plagiognathus, Fieb.
— viridulus, Fall.
— arbustorum, Fab.
CRTPTOCERATA
NEPINA
Nepa, Lin.
— cinerea, Lin.
NOTONECTINA
Notonecta, Lin.
— glauca, Lin.
CORIXINA
Corixa, Geoffr.
- — moesta, Fieb.
— fabricii, Fieb.
CICADINA
Membracid^
Centrotus, Fab.
— cornutus, Lin.
ClXIID^
Cixius, Latr.
— nervosus, Lin.
HOMOPTERA
Cicadas, etc.
CERCOPIDiE
Aphrophora, Germ.
— alni, Fall.
Philaenus, Stal.
— spumarius, Lin.
Bythoscopidj?:
Macropsis, Lewis
142
INSECTS
Bythoscopid^ {continued) —
Macropsis lanio, Lin.
Idiocerus, Lewis
— fulgidus, Fab.
Tettigonid^
Evacanthus, Lep. & Serv.
— interruptus, Lin.
Tettigonia, GeofFr.
— viridis, Lin.
ACOCEPHALID^
Acocephalus, Germ.
AcocEPHAUD^ {continued) —
Acocephalus bifasciatus, Lin.
Jassid^
Deltocephalus, Burn.
— ocellaris, Fall.
Allygus, Fieb.
— mixtus, Fab.
Thamnotettix, Zett.
— prasina, Fall.
— subfuscula, Fall.
MYRIAPODA
The myriapoda of Cumberland have been but little studied. It is
impossible therefore to form a fair estimate of the number of species
occurring in the county. Nevertheless it is safe to predict that out of
the fifty odd species known from the British Islands at least thirty could
without difficulty be collected in the sheltered valleys of the lake district.
It is highly probable moreover that diligent and systematic search
would bring to light species never previously recorded from England,
possibly indeed species new to science.
The species mentioned in the subjoined list were collected by Mr.
F. O. Pickard-Cambridge.
CHILOPODA
Centipedes
LITHOBIIDiE
Short-bodied, swift-running centipedes fur-
nished with eyes and only fifteen pairs of legs.
1. Lithobius variegatus, Leach. Zoo/. Misc.,
iii. p. 40 (18 1 7).
Carlisle.
This species, which is of peculiar interest on
account of its being confined so far as is known
to the British and Channel islands, may be
distinguished from the commoner brown form
L. forficatus by its larger head, variegated
colouring, etc.
2. Lithobius cakaratus, C. Koch. Die Myr.
Gatt. Lithobius, p. 86 (1862).
Carlisle.
A much smaller and darker species than the
preceding and characterized by the presence of
a tubercle on the fourth segment of the anal
legs in the male.
GEOPHILIDiE
Long-bodied vermiform centipedes without
eyes and furnished with a large but variable
number of legs.
3. Geophilus flavus, De Geer. Mini. Ins., vii.
p. 561 (1778) { — longicornis. Leach).
Carlisle.
This species is distinguished from the rest
of the British species by its long cylindrical
antennal segments.
Geophilus carpophagus. Leach,
iii. p. 43.
Carlisle.
Zool. Misc.,
Differing from the preceding and from the
rest of the British species by the ' ball and
socket ' method of articulation of the anterior
sternal plates.
143
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
DIPLOPODA
Millipedes
POLYDESMID^
Millipedes in which the body consists of
from nineteen to twenty segments most of
which in all the British species are furnished
on each side with a repugnatorial pore sup-
ported upon a lateral crest or keel.
5. Polydesmus complanatus,lAnn. Faun. Suecic,
ed. 2, p. 502 (1761).
Carlisle.
The commonest and largest British species.
6. Polydesmus dentkulatus, C. Koch. Syst. der
Myriap.,^^. lis (1847).
Carlisle.
Distinguishable from the preceding by its
smaller size and squarer antero-lateral angles
of the keels. Hitherto this species has only
been known from one or two localities in the
south of England.
CHORDEUMIDiE
Millipedes with almost invariably thirty
body-segments furnished dorsally with six
symmetrically disposed bristles, without re-
pugnatorial pores and usually keeled much as
in the Polydesmidee.
7. Atractosoma polydesmoldes, Leach. ZooL
Misc.,m. p. 36, pi. 134, fig. 15 (1817).
Carlisle.
This species with its large lateral keels
closely resembles an elongate Polydesmus.
lULID^
Millipedes in which the body consists of a
large but variable number of segments furnished
with pores but without the lateral keels charac-
teristic of the two preceding families.
8. lulus sabulosus, Linn. Syst. Nat.y ed. 10,
p. 639 (1758).
Carlisle.
A large species distinguishable from the rest
of the British species that are furnished with a
caudal process by the presence of a pair of dorsal
longitudinal pale bands.
9. lulus niger. Leach. Zool, Misc., iil. p. 34
(1817).
Carlisle.
Nearly as large as the preceding and also
furnished with a caudal process, but distinguish-
able by the absence of dorsal bands and the
presence of transverse grooves on the anterior
portion of the segments.
10. lulus pilosus, Newport. Ann. Mag. Nat.
Hist., xi. p. 316 (1842).
Carlisle.
Resembling /. niger in colour, but smaller
and without the transverse grooves on the
anterior half of the segments.
ARACHNIDA
Spiders, etc.
Although some little work has been done in the collecting of mem-
bers of this order in the county of Cumberland, yet one cannot consider
the following account of the spider-fauna of the region under considera-
tion in any respect a full one.
So far as the physical characters of the county are concerned, the
area may be roughly divided into three districts, speaking of course
entirely from an arachnological point of view.
First we have the 'Eden Valley district, comprising all those valleys
formed by the courses of the Eden, the Caldew, the Esk and the Irthing,
consisting of more or less undulating country, richly wooded and clothed
with rank vegetation in the glens, gradually blending in their upper
reaches with the heather regions and higher moorlands of the Fell
Country. There will of course be found throughout the county regions
of a somewhat similar nature formed by the watercourses which empty
144
SPIDERS
themselves on the west into the Irish Sea and on the south into More-
cambe Bay.
The second, or Solway district, consists of an immense tract of level
mud and sand, meadow and marshland, forming the delta of the united
waters of the four rivers mentioned above. In connection with this
district must be recollected certain areas and spots of a swampy rushy
boggy nature known as the Mosses, amongst which may be noted Solway
Moss and Newtown Moss near Penrith.
The Lake district itself to some extent comprehends the physical
characters of both the foregoing areas, comprising meadow-lands, moor-
lands, grass and heather districts and, in addition to the ordinary fell
regions, the higher rocky desolate mountain heights where several rare
species peculiar to them are found.
Another region, which might almost be said to constitute a fourth
area, consists of the sand-dunes which lie to the south of the entrance of
the Solway Firth, extending with interruptions as far as St. Bees, and
beyond this further south until it ends, so far as Cumberland is concerned,
at the mouth of the river Duddon, near Broughton-in-Furness. Many
species almost confined to the sand-dunes are to be found in this district.
So far as the geology of the district is concerned it is of a very
uniform character, consisting of the two forms of slate known as the
Skiddaw and Green Slates, with an occasional outcrop of granite on Sea-
fell for instance and in Wastwater, of syenite in the Ennerdale valley, with
a mere streak of limestone running from Coniston in the direction of
Windermere and Long-Sleddale. These geological features, with the
New Red Sandstone of the Eden, Armathwaite and Penrith districts, un-
doubtedly furnish us with a country whose physical constitution and
consequent climatic temperament should afford us a fauna rich in itself
and in some respects decidedly different to that which we find on the
limestone and chalk formations of the south of England.
We may in this connection point to a few species which are not
only peculiar to our own hill country, but also many of them character-
istic of the hill districts of the continent, as for instance, the sub-alpine
regions of France, the Austrian Tyrol, the mountains of Tatra, Silesia,
Gallicia and the highlands of Germany : namely Bolyphantes alticeps,
Lepthyphantes tenebricolus, L. pinicolus, L. angulatus, Micryphantes sublimis,
Macrargus adipatus, Oreoneta rudis and Pardosa traillii.
Of the 550 and upwards of species recorded from England and
Wales 2 1 9 are all that have hitherto been placed to the credit of Cumber-
land, though this is, comparatively speaking, a very creditable list. Of
these the most worthy of notice are Prosthesima electa, Agroeca celans,
Philodromus fallax, Lycosa miniata, Pardosa traillii, Cryphceca diversa, Singa
hamata, Tetragnatha pinicola, Lepthyphantes tenebricolus, L. pinicolus, Bathy-
phantes setiger, Oreoneta rudis, Centromerus expertus, Leptothrix hardii,
Mengea scopiger and M. warburtonii, Microneta sublimis, Dicymbium tibiale,
Cornicularia karpinskii, Caledonia evansii, Cnephalocotes curtus, Lophocarenum
mengei, Asagena phalerata and Hyptiotes paradoxus.
I 145 L
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
The localities given in the following list are well authenticated, and
the initials of those who collected the specimens or recorded their occur-
rence are added. The species were mostly collected by A. Randall-
Jackson, Esq., M.D., of Southport and the Royal Infirmary, Liverpool,
and by the present writer.
In cases where the generic or specific name quoted is not that under
which the spider has usually been recognized in the works of English
authors, a note has been added calling attention to the fact. With these
few preliminary remarks, we may proceed at once with the list of the
spiders of Cumberland.
ARANEiE
ARACHNOMORPHM
DYSDERIDiE
Spiders with six eyes and two pairs of stigmatic openings, situated close together on the
genital rima ; the anterior pair communicating with lung books, the posterior with tracheal
tubes. Tarsal claws, two in Dysdera, three in Harpactes and Segestria.
1. Harpactes hombergii (Scopoli).
Carlisle, Lake districts.
Common ; April to July.
2. Segestria senoculata (Linna^us).
Carlisle and district, Lake districts.
Common ; July.
OONOPID^
3. Oonops pulcher^T&'m.'^tX.on.
Lake districts.
Rare ; adult in July.
DRASSIDiE
Spiders with eight eyes, situated in two transverse rows. The tracheal openings lie
immediately in front of the spinners. The tarsal claws are two in number, but the anterior
pair of spinners are set close together at their base, and the maxillae are convex and not
impressed in the middle.
4. Drassodes cupreus (Blackwall).
Carlisle and district.
Abundant on the fell sides, under stones ;
adult from May to December.
5. Drassodes troglodytes (C. L. Koch).
Lake districts.
Not common ; adult in June and July.
6. Prosthesima latreillii, Simon.
Lake districts, Eskdale, Borrowdale, Grise-
dale (A. R. J.).
Not uncommon
September.
adult
August
7. Prosthesima petiverii, O. P.-Cambridge.
Lake districts, Eskdale (A. R. J.).
Rare ; adult in August and September.
8. Prosthesima electa (C. L. Koch).
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
Probably common on all the sandhills from
Southport to the Solway ; August.
CLUBIONID.E
Spiders with eight eyes, situated in two transverse rows. The tracheal openings lie
immediately in front of the spinners. The tarsal claws are two in number, but the anterior
pair of spinners are set close together at the base, and the maxilla are convex, and not
impressed in the middle.
9. Micaria pulicaria (Sundevall).
Lake districts (A. R. J.).
10. Phrurolithus festivus, C. L. Koch.
Eden Valley.
Rare.
1 1 . Clubiona reclusa, O. P.-Cambridge.
Lake district.
Abundant on the borders of the lakes in
June.
146
SPIDERS
12. Clubiona compta, C. L. Koch.
Carlisle, Gilsland and Lake district.
Common amongst foliage in June.
13. Clubiona pallidula (Clerck),
Lake districts.
Fairly common in June on low shrubs
along the margins of the lakes. Known also
as C. epimelas.
14. Clubiona phragmith, C. L. Koch.
Solway district and Penrith.
Abundant in May and June.
15. Clubiona terrestris, Westring.
Eden Valley district.
Not uncommon in June and July.
16. Clubiona stagnatilis, Kulczynski.
Solway district and Penrith.
Known also as C. grisea.
17. Clubiona trivialis, C. L. Koch.
Amongst heather in the Lake districts 7
(A. R. J.).
18. Clubiona diversa, O. P.-Cambridge.
Lake districts (A. R. J.).
Rare ; under stones in August.
19. Chiracanthium erraticum, Walckenaer.
Eden Valley district (F. O. P. C.) ; Lake
districts (A. R. J.).
Not uncommon amongst brambles in the
neighbourhood of Carlisle.
20. Agrosca brunnea (Blackwall).
Eden Valley district.
Rare ; amongst herbage in the woods.
21. Agrceca proxima (O. P.-Cambridge).
Lake district (A. R. J.).
Common everywhere on the fells, especially
in damp places.
22. Agrceca celans (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Very rare ; a few adult females only
amongst
April.
23
moss in the woods at Wreay in
Zora maculata (Blackwall).
Eden Valley district.
Common. Known also as Hecaerge macu-
lata or spinimana.
THOMISIDiE
24. Xysticus erraticus (Blackwall).
Newtown Moss, Penrith. May.
A single adult male only.
25- Xysticus cristatus (Clerck).
Eden Valley and Lake districts.
Common throughout the summer.
26. Xysticus sabulosus (Hahn).
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
A few adult examples of both sexes.
August.
Oxyptila atomaria (Panzer).
Lake districts (A. R. J.).
Not uncommon in marshes, among long
grass. Known also as Thomisus versutus,
Blackwall.
28
Philodromus aureolus (Clerck).
Eden Valley districts.
Not abundant.
29. Philodromus f alia X (Sundevall).
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
Very abundant. A dozen can be obtained
from a single tuft of marram grass. Adult
in spring and late autumn.
30. Tibellus oblongus (Walckenaer).
Newtown Moss, Penrith ; Solway district ;
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
Common ; adult in May and June.
31. Thanatus striatus (C. L. Koch).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Not uncommon. Adult in May, and
known also as Thanatus hirsutus.
SALTICID^
The spiders of this family may be recognized in a general way by their mode of progres-
sion, consisting of a series of leaps, often many times their own length. More particularly
chey may be known by the square shape of the cephalic region and the fact that the eyes are
arranged in three rows of 4, 2, 2 ; the centrals of the anterior row being much the largest
and usually iridescent. Those of the second row are the smallest, while the posterior pair is
placed well back and helps to give the quadrate character to the carapace. Otherwise these
spiders are simply specialized Clubionids with two tarsal claws and other minor characters
possessed in common with members of this latter family.
They can be beaten from foliage or found amongst herbage and under stones. The
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
commonest, Salticus scenkus, will be well known to all observers, running and leaping on the
walls of houses in the bright sunshine.
32. Salticus scenkus (Clerck).
Eden Valley, Carlisle.
Not common, on the walls of houses ;
June. Known also as Epiblemum scenkum.
33. Euophrys erratkus (Walckenaer).
Eden Valley, Gilsland, Lake districts.
Common on the stone walls, under the
coping stones, in June.
34. Euophrys frontalis (Walckenaer).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Not common ; adult in May.
35. Neon reticulatus (Blackwall).
Newtown Moss, Penrith ; Lake districts
(A. R. J.).
Rare ; adult in May.
36. Ergane falcata (Clerck).
Lake districts (A. R. J.).
Not uncommon ; on bushes in August.
Known also as Hasarius falcatus and Salticus
coronatus,
37. Attus saltator, Simon.
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
Abundant ; at the roots of the marram
grass in August.
38. Dendryphantes ha status (Clerck).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Three adult females only in May.
39. Heliophanus flavipes (Hahn).
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
Common ; amongst the grass in August.
PISAURID^
Spiders with eight eyes in three rows, and three tarsal claws. The first row of eyes
consists of four small eyes which are sometimes in a straight line, sometimes recurved and
sometimes procurved. Those of the other two rows are situated in a rectangle of various
proportions. Pisaura runs freely over the herbage, carrying its egg-sac beneath the body.
40. Pisaura mirabilis (Clerck).
Eden Valley, Solway and Lake district.
Very common ; adult in June and July.
Known also as Dolomedes or Ocyale mirabilis.
LYCOSID^
The members of this family have also eight eyes, similarly situated to those of the
Pisaurida, the tarsal claws also being three in number. The spiders are to be found running
freely and carrying their egg-sac attached to the spinners. Many of the larger species make
a short burrow in the soil and there keep guard over the egg-sac.
41. Lycosa accentuata, Latreille.
Lake districts (A. R. J.).
Common all over the fells in June. Known
also as Tarentula andrenivora.
42. Lycosa pulverulenta (Clerck).
Lake districts.
Common in June. Known also under
Tarentula.
43. Lycosa cuneata (Clerck).
Lake districts.
A single male and female adult in June.
Known also under the name Tarentula.
44. Lycosa miniata (C. L. Koch).
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
Very common in August. Known also as
Tarentula,
[48
45. Lycosa perita, Latreille.
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
Very common in August. Known also
under the name Trochosa picta.
46. Lycosa ruricola (De Geer).
Lake district.
Very common ; adult in June, Known
also under the name Trochosa.
47. Lycosa terricola (Thorell).
Eden Valley and Lake districts.
Not uncommon amongst dead leaves in
Armathwaite woods ; adult in June. Known
also under the name Trochosa.
48. Lycosa spinipalpis., F. P.-Cambridge.
Lake Derwentwater.
A single adult male and female only.
49- Pardasa lugubris (Walckenaer).
Eden Valley.
A very abundant species in April, running
over the dead leaves in the woods at Arma-
thwaite and Wreay. This and the following
species are known also under the name Lycosa.
50. Pardosa monticola (Clerck).
Eden Valley, Solway and Lake districts.
Very common ; adult in May and June.
5 1 . Pardosa palustrh (Linn.).
Solway and Lake districts.
Very common ; adult in May and June.
52. Pardosa purbeckensis, F. P.-Cambridge.
Solway.
Not abundant ; adult in May.
53. Pardosa agricola (Thorell).
Eden Valley and Lake districts.
. A species confined to the mountainous dis-
tricts ; adult in May and June.
54. Pardosa annulata (Thorell),
Lake districts.
Not common ; adult in May and June.
SPIDERS
55
Pardosa pullata (Clerck).
Eden Valley, Solway and Lake districts.
Abundant everywhere ; adult throughout
the summer.
56. Pardosa nigriceps (Thorell).
Lake districts.
Occurs commonly throughout the heather
districts on the Fells ; adult in June.
57- Pardosa amentata (Clerck).
Lake districts.
Common and adult in May and June.
58. Pardosa trailii (O. P.-Cambridge),
Lake districts.
Common on Styehead Pass amongst the
loose stones of the screes ; adult in May and
June. Confined to mountainous regions.
59. Pirata ptratkus (Clerck).
Lake districts ; Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Both sexes of this and the two following
species were found adult in June.
60. Pirata hygrophilus, Thorell.
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
61. Pirata latitans (Blackwall).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
AGELENIDiE
Spiders with eight eyes, situated in two transverse rows. Legs with three tarsal claws.
The species of this family spin a large sheet-like web, and construct a tubular retreat at the
back of it, which leads to some crevice amongst the rocks or the herbage or the chinks in the
walls of outhouses, wherever the various species may happen to be found. The posterior pair
of spinners is usually much longer than the other two pairs.
62. Cryphaeca sylvicola (Blackwall).
Lake districts.
Common ; beneath stones.
63. Cryphaeca diversa (O. P.-Cambridge).
Eden Valley, on the banks of the Caldew.
A single adult female in October,
64. Argyroneta aquatica (Clerck).
Newtown Moss, Penrith ; Eden Valley, near
Carlisle.
65. Ccelotes atropos (Walckenaer),
Carlisle and Lake district.
Abundant throughout the whole county in
the Fell and Lake districts up to an altitude
of 2,000 feet. It is found under logs of
wood, in stone walls or beneath isolated
stones, where a sheet of white webbing often
betrays the presence of the spider, A long
tube runs beneath the log or stone, and both
male and female can be found living together
at the end ; while later the young spiders
will be found spending the early days of their
childhood with their mother. Adult in June.
Mr. Randall-Jackson has taken them at an
altitude of 3,180 feet on the summit of Hel-
vellyn.
66. Textrix denticulata (Olivier).
Eden Valley and Lake districts.
Very abundant under the loose coping-
stones of walls throughout the Carlisle district
and Fell regions. Adult in May and June.
67. Tegenaria derhami (Scopoli).
Eden Valley, Carlisle and RockclifFe.
Known also as Tegenaria civilis.
68. Tegenaria silvestris, L, Koch.
Lake districts ; Derwentwater.
Adult in June. Known also as T. cam-
pestrisy C, L. Koch.
149
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
69. Agelena labyrinthica (Clerck).
The Lake districts ; Eskdale and Wastdale
(A. R. J.).
Very common, spinning its sheet-like web
on gorse bushes. Adult in July.
70. Hahnia montana (Blackwall).
Lake districts.
Common in the Tilberthwaite heath dis-
tricts ; adult in June.
71. Hahnia elegans (Blackwall).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Amongst the roots of aquatic plants close
down at the top of the water. June.
72. Hahnia nava (Blackwall).
Lake districts. 1,100 feet (A. R. J.).
73. Hahnia helveola^ Simon.
Lake districts.
Females were found adult in June.
ARGIOPIDiE
The spiders included in this family have eight eyes, situated in two rows, the lateral eyes
of both rows being usually adjacent, if not in actual contact, while the central eyes form a
quadrangle. The tarsal claws are three, often with other supernumerary claws. The web is
either an orbicular (wheel-like) snare, or consists of a sheet of webbing beneath which the spiders
hang and capture the prey as it falls upon the sheet.
74. Nesticus cellulanus (Clerck).
The Gelt, Gilsland, Eden Valley.
Common ; adult in both sexes in May
and June under damp herbage on rocks along
the river margin. Known also as Linyphia
crypticolens.
75. Meta meriancs (Scopoli).
Eden Valley ; Carlisle, Wetheral, RockclifFe.
Abundant in cellars and beneath the over-
hanging rocks and steep damp banks through-
out the district. Known also as Epeira an-
triada and celata, Blackwall.
76. Meta segmentata (Clerck).
Eden Valley, Solway and Lake districts.
Very common. Known also as Epeira
inclinata, Blackwall.
77- Meta menardi (Latreille).
Lake districts ; Boot (A. R. J.).
About a dozen specimens found in one
small cave, but in no other cave or mine.
Known also as Epeira fusca, Blackwall.
78. ZiUa atrica (C. L. Koch).
Eden Valley and the Lake district.
Abundant on the stone walls and amongst
shrubs. Known also as Epeira callophylla.
79. Zilla X -notata (Clerck).
Eden Valley and Lake district.
Adult in June and July. Known also as
Epeira similis.
80. Araneus quadratus (Clerck).
Eden Valley.
This fine spider is abundant in the mature
state on the heathy common of Kingmoor,
near Carlisle. This is the bee-catching
spider.
81. Araneus redii (Scopoli).
Lake districts.
Common in the heather districts in June
and July. Known also as Epeira solers.
82. Araneus umbraticus (Clerck).
Eden Valley ; Gilsland ; Pooley Bridge
(A. R. J.).
83. Araneus diadematus (Clerck).
Eden Valley, Solway, Lake districts.
Very abundant everywhere ; adult in Octo-
ber. Black varieties common on the Fells.
84. Araneus cornutus (Clerck).
Lake and Fell districts.
Common on the Watendlath Fells, Bor-
rowdale ; July. Known also as Epeira apo-
clisa.
85. Araneus patagiatus (Clerck).
Eden Valley, Solway and Lake districts ;
St. Herbert's Island, Derwentwater ;
Shores of Haweswater (A. R. J.).
86. Araneus cucurbitinus (Clerck).
Eden Valley district.
This beautiful species, grass-green with red
tip to the abdomen, is very common in the
nursery gardens near Carlisle.
87. Singa hamata.
Ulpha Fell (A. R. J.).
About twenty-five specimens were taken
from their webs spun among the heather
branches in a swampy bit of moorland.
88. Tetragnatha extensa (Linnaeus).
Fells and Lake district (A. R. J.).
Heather districts ; common.
150
SPIDERS
89. Tetragnatha solandri (Scopoli).
Lake districts (A. R. J.)
Common in woods. Eskdale and Ulles-
water.
90. Tetragnatha pinicola, L. Koch.
Solway Moss.
A single adult male.
91. Pachygnatha clerkii, Sundevall.
Solway, Eden Valley, Lake districts.
Abundant amongst grass on the shores of
the Solway, in the adult state in September.
92. Pachygnatha degeerii, Sundevall.
Eden Valley, Lake district.
93. Pachygnatha listeri, Sundevall.
Eden Valley.
Rare ; a fevir examples of the female sex
amongst dead leaves in the Armathwaite
woods.
94. Linyphia montana (Clerck).
Eden Valley, Solway, Lake district.
Common on the islands in Lake Derwent-
water. June. Known also as L. marginata,
Blackwall,
95. Linyphia clathrata, Sundevall,
Eden Valley.
Common in the neighbourhood of Carlisle ;
June.
96. Linyphia pusilla, Simdevall.
The Gelt, near Carlisle (H. Friend).
A single specimen only ; April.
97. Linyphia triangularis (Clerck).
Eden Valley and Lake district.
Known also as L. montana, Blackwall ;
July and August.
98. Linyphia peltata (Wider).
Eden Valley and Lake districts.
Common on the foliage of trees through-
out the district ; June.
99. Linyphia insignis, Blackwall.
Eden Valley.
Very common amongst grass on the banks
of the Irthing at Gilsland. Males and females
adult in September.
100. Taranucnus setosus (O. P.-Cambridge).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Abundant in August. Known also under
the name Linyphia.
lOi. Labulla thoracica (Wider).
Eden Valley.
Abundant under overhanging rocks and
banks at Wetheral. Known also as Linyphia
cauta, Blackwall.
102. Floronia hucculenta (Clerck).
Eden Valley.
A few examples of both sexes in the neigh-
bourhood of Dalston in September. Known
also as Linyphia frenata.
103. Bolyphantes alticeps (Sundevall).
Penrith and Lake district.
Adult males on Penrith Beacon and Hel-
vellyn in September. Known also under the
name Linyphia.
104. Bolyphantes luteolus (Blackwall).
Silloth and Penrith Beacon.
Abundant among marram grass on the
sand-dunes in September. Known also under
Linyphia.
105. Drapetisca socialis (Sundevall).
Eden Valley ; Eskdale (A. R. J.).
Common on rocks overhanging the Eden
at Wetheral and the Irthing at Gilsland ; also
on pine-trees near Carlisle, and in Muncaster
woods, Eskdale.
106. Stemonyphantes lineatus (Linnaeus).
Eden Valley and Solway districts.
Not uncommon. Known also as Linyphia
hucculenta.
107. Tapinopa longidens (Wider).
Eden Valley and Lake districts.
Common under stones at Elterwater and
Talkin Tarn. Known also under Linyphia.
108. Lepthyphantes nebulosus (Sundevall).
Carlisle.
Two adult male examples only in an out-
house. This and the following species under
Lepthyphantes and Bathyphantes are known also
under the name Linyphia.
109. Lepthyphantes leprosus (Ohlert).
Carlisle.
110. Lepthyphantes terricolus (C. L. Koch).
Eden Valley.
Abundant in the adult state amongst dead
leaves at Armathwaite and Wreay in April.
Known also as Linyphia alacris, Blackwall.
111. Lepthyphantes tenuis (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Abundant amongst grass on the banks of
the Irthing at Gilsland in September. Known
also as Linyphia tenebricola, Blackwall.
112. Lepthyphantes blackwallii, Kulczynski.
Eden Valley.
Abundant amongst grass on the banks of
the Irthing in September. Known also as
Linyphia zebrina.
151
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
113. Lepthyphantes tenebricolus (Wider).
Eden Valley.
A single adult male near Armathwaite.
114. Lepthyphantes flavipei (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
A few examples among grass in tins neigh-
bourhood of Carlisle.
115. Lepthyphantes pinicolus, Simon.
Lake district (A. R. J.).
Common under stones on the slopes of
Helvellyn, and Croslin, or Cross Fell, in the
Pennine range ; September.
116. Lepthyphantes cristatus, Menge.
Eden Valley.
Rare under stones in the woods at Arma-
thwaite in April.
117. Lepthyphantes obscurus (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
A few examples of both sexes amongst dead
leaves at Armathwaite in April.
118. Lepthyphantes pa llidus (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Amongst dead leaves at Armathwaite (April)
and in Newtown Moss, Penrith, in September.
119. Lepthyphantes minutus (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Common in the crannies of stone walls in
the neighbourhood of Carlisle in August.
1 20. Lepthyphantes ericceus (Blackwall).
Lake districts (A. R. J.).
Under stones on the Lower Fells.
121. Bathyphantes concolor (Wider).
Eden Valley and Lake district.
Common throughout the whole district in
the summer months.
122. Bathyphantes meadil (O. P.-Cambridge).
Carlisle and Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Common and adult in May and October.
Known also as Linyphia approximata, O. P.-
Cambridge.
123. Bathyphantes n'tgrtnus (Blackwall).
Carlisle ; Newtown Moss, Penrith ; Lake
districts.
Common and adult in July.
124. Bathyphantes setiger, F. P.-Cambridge
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
A few adults of both sexes in May.
125. Bathyphantes gracilis (Blackwall).
Carlisle ; Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Common and adult in July.
126. Bathyphantes pullatus {O. P.-Cambridge).
Eden Valley and Solway districts.
127. Bathyphantes dorsalis (Wider).
Carlisle.
Abundant in the adult state on gorse bushes
and trees in the summer.
128. Pasciloneta variegata (Blackwall).
Lake districts.
Abundant under stones, but apparently
local. Known also under Linyphia.
129. Porrhomma pygmaum (Blackwall).
Carlisle.
Common on railings in the autumn. Known
also under Neriene.
130. Macrargus adipatus (L. Koch).
Penrith Beacon. Helvellyn (A. R. J.).
A few adults of both sexes in September.
Known also as Linyphia reticulata.
131. Macrargus rufus (Wider).
Eden Valley.
Abundant among dead leaves at Arma-
thwaite in April. Known also under Neriene.
132. Macrargus abnormis [O.V.-CzvahnAgt).
Eden Valley.
Not uncommon in the woods at Arma-
thwaite. Known also under Linyphia.
133. Oreoneta rudis (O. P.-Cambridge).
Lake District.
Adult males and females were taken on the
summit of Helvellyn in September. Known
also as Tmeticus and Oreoneta niger, F. P.-Cam-
bridge.
134. Hilaira uncata (O. P.-Cambridge).
Lake district. Fairfield (A. R. J.).
135. Leptorhoptrum huthwaitii (O. P.-Cam-
bridge).
Newtown Moss, Penrith ; Eden Valley and
Lake districts, Haweswater (A. R. J.).
Beneath stones on the banks of the Eden in
June and July. Known also under Neriene.
136. Centromerus bicolor (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Abundant near Carlisle and Gilsland in
September and October. Known also under
Linyphia.
137. Centromerus concinnus (Thorell).
Eden Valley.
Not uncommon near Carlisle and Gilsland
in September and October. Known also under
Linyphia. This species is possibly only a
dwarf form of bicolor.
52
SPIDERS
138. Centromerus expertus (O. P.-Cambridge).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
A few adult males and females in Septem-
ber. Known also under Linyphia.
139. Centromerus sylvaticus (Blackwall).
Penrith Beacon.
Very rare. Known also under Nereine.
140. Leptothrix hardii (Blackwall).
Ravenglass Sandhills (A. R. J.).
A common spider on sand-dunes in August.
Known also as Wakkenara hardii and Lepto-
thrix clavipes, Menge.
141. Mengea scopiger (Grube).
Lake districts (A. R. J.) ; Eden Valley and
Solway districts.
Abundant amongst herbage on the banks of
Eden, shores of Solway and in Newtown Moss,
Penrith, in August and September. Known
also as Linyphia rufa, Pedina scopiger and P.
cristata, Menge. Pedina is preoccupied.
142. Mengea warburtonii (O. P.-Cambridge).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Fairly common in the month of August.
143. Microneta viaria (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Found in profusion in the springtime
amongst dead leaves in the woods at Armath-
waite and Wreay. Known also under Neriene.
144. Microneta decora (O. P.-Cambridge).
Newton Moss, Penrith.
A single adult male in May. Known also
under Neriene.
145. Microneta conigera (O. P.-Cambridge).
Lake district.
A single adult male amongst grass on Ling-
moor Fells, Elterwater in June. Known also
under Neriene.
146. Micryphantes sublimis {O. P.-Cambridge).
Lake district.
A very local species, but taken plentifully
under stones on the slopes of Helvellyn in
September. Known also under Neriene.
147. Micryphantes fuscipalpis (C. L. Koch).
Eden Valley.
Common in the neighbourhood of Carlisle.
Known also under Neriene, possibly including
also M. rurestris, L. Koch.
148. Erigone dentipalpis (Wider).
Eden Valley ; Solway and Lake districts.
Common. Known also under the name
Neriene.
149. Erigone atra (Blackwall).
Lake district ; Solway and Eden Valley.
150. Tiso vagans (Blackwall).
Carlisle.
A single male only. Known also under the
name Neriene.
151. Gongylidium rufipes (Sundevall).
Lake districts.
Known also as Neriene rufipes.
152. Coryphceus distinctus (Simon).
Carlisle.
A single adult male. Known also as Cary-
phtsus glabriceps, F. P.-Cambridge.
153. Stylothorax apicatus (Blackwall).
Lake district.
Not common, June. Known also under
Neriene.
154. Kukzynskiellum gibbosum (Blackwall).
Lake district.
Not common, June. Known also under
Neriene.
155. Kulczynskiellum tuberosum (Blackwall).
Lake districts, and Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Not uncommon in May and June. Known
also under Neriene.
156. Kulczynskiellum retusum (Westring).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Not uncommon in May and June. Known
also under Neriene.
157. Kulczynskiellum fuscum (Blackwall).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Known also under Neriene.
158. Kulczynskiellum agreste (Blackwall).
Lake district.
On the shores of Ulleswater in July.
Known also under Neriene.
159. Trachygnatha dentata (Wider).
Solway, and Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Known also under Neriene.
160. Neriene rubens (Blackwall).
Eden Valley, Carlisle.
Occasionally met with in October. Known
also under Gonatium.
161. Neriene isabellina (C. L. Koch).
Eden Valley, Carlisle.
Not uncommon in October. Known also
as Neriene rubella, Blackwall.
162. Hypomma hituberculatum (Wider).
Eden Valley, Solway and Lake districts.
Abundant in spring and autumn in New-
153
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
town Moss, Penrith. Known also under
Neriene.
163. Dicymbium nigrum (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Common in the woods of Armathwaite and
Wreay in April. Known also under Neriene.
164. Dicymbium tibiale (Blackwall).
Eden Valley ; Lake district (A. R. J.).
Rare ; in woods at Wreay in April. Known
'also under Neriene.
165. Lophomma herbigradum (Blackwall).
Newtown Moss, Penrith (A. R. J.).
Both sexes adult in June. Known also
under Neriene.
166. Lophomma punctatum (Blackwall).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Both sexes adult in June. Known also
under Walckenaera.
167. Tapinocyba subitanea (O. P.-Cambridge).
Eden Valley.
A single adult male near Carlisle. Known
also under Walckenaera.
168. Tapinocyba beckii (O. P.-Cambridge).
Lake district.
Adult males and females in June. Known
also under Walckenaera.
169. Viderius anticus (Wider).
Lake districts.
Adult males in June. Known also under
Walckenaera.
170. Viderius melanocephalus (O. P.-Cam-
bridge).
Lake district.
A single adult female in June. Known
also under Walckenaera.
iji. Prosoponcus cristatus (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
A single adult male near Carlisle in Feb-
ruary.
172. Walckenaeria acuminata (Blackwall).
Eden Valley, Gilsland.
Abundant amongst grass on the banks of
the Irthing of both sexes in September.
173. Walckenaeria nudipalpis (Westring).
Keppelcove Tarn, Glenridding (A. R. J.).
A single adult male. Known also under
Walckenaera.
174. Cornicularia cuspidata (Blackwall).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Adult males and females in May. Known
also under Walckenaera.
175. Cornicularia karpinskii (O. P.-Cambridge).
Red Tarn, Helvellyn (A. R. J.).
An adult of both sexes in August. This
is the first record of this Siberian species as
British.
176. Cornicularia clara (O. P.-Cambridge).
Eden Valley.
Adult females amongst leaves in the woods
at Wreay. Known also under Neriene.
177. Savignia frontata, Blackwall.
Eden Valley, Carlisle.
A few adults of both sexes in October.
Known also under Walckenaera.
178. Plasiocrarus fiiscipes (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Abundant amongst dead leaves at Arma-
thwaite in May and October.
179. Plasiocrarus permixtus (O. P.-Cam-
bridge).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
A single adult male only in September.
Known also under Walckenaera.
180. Plasiocrarus latifrom (O. P.-Cam-
bridge).
Eden Valley, Carlisle.
Adult males and females in February.
Known also under Walckenaera.
181. Areoncus humilis (Blackwall).
Eden Valley, Carlisle.
A single adult male on the banks of the
Caldew. Known also under Walckenaera.
182. Caledonia evansii (O. P.-Cambridge).
Grisedale Pass, Helvellyn (A. R. J.).
Three adult males.
183. Cnepha locates curtus, Simon.
Lake districts (A. R. J.).
An adult male and several immature under
stones on the summit of Fairfield, 2,650 feet,
in August.
184. Nematogmus obscurus (Blackwall).
Eden Valley.
Amongst dead leaves in Armathwaite woods.
Rare. Known also under Cnephalocotes and
Walckenaera.
185. Pocadicnemis pumila (Blackwall).
Eden Valley and Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Known also under Walckenaera.
186. Brachycentrum nemorale (Blackwall).
Armathwaite.
A few adult in April. Known also under
Walckenaera,
154
SPIDERS
187. Lophocarenum mengei, Simon.
Lake district.
A few males and females on an island in
Lake Elterwater in July. Only British
record.
188. Minyriolus pusillus (Wider).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Known also under the name Wakkenaera.
189. Entelecara acuminata (Wider).
Carlisle.
A few adult males in May and June ;
rare. Known also under Wakkenaera.
190. Entelecara erythropus (Westring).
Carlisle.
Common on foliage in May and June.
Known also under Wakkenaera.
191. Entelecara trtfrons (O. P.-Cambridge).
Eden Valley and Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Known also under Wakkenaera.
192. Ceratinella scabrosa (O. P.-Cambridge).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Known also under the name Wakkenaera.
193. Ceratinella hrevipes (Westring).
Solway district.
194. Ceratinella brevis (Wider).
Windermere (A. R. J.).
Females in woods ; August.
195. Maso sundevallii (Westring).
Newtown Moss, Penrith.
Known also under the name Neriene.
MIMETID^
Spiders of this family are similar in general respects to the Theridiida, having eight eyes
and three tarsal claws. The species of Ero construct a small brown pear-shaped or cylindrical
egg-cocoon suspended on a fine silken stalk.
196. Ero furcata (Villers).
Eden Valley, Solway and Lake districts.
Not common. Known also as E. thoracica and Theridion variegatum.
THERIDIID^
The members of this family have eight eyes situated very much like those of the Argio-
pidee, but the mandibles are usually weak, the maxillag are inclined over the labium, and the
posterior legs have a comb of stiff curved spines beneath the tarsi. The web consists of a
tangle of crossing lines, and the spider often constructs a tent-like retreat wherein the egg-sac
is hung up.
197. Episinus lugubris, Simon.
Eden Valley district.
Not common amongst dry grass. Known
also as E. truncatus and Theridion angulatum.
198. Asagena phalerata (^3.m&r).
Lake districts (A. R. J.).
Not uncommon under stones at a low ele-
vation in August on Loughrigg Fell, Amble-
side ; Eskdale, Wastdale, Grisedale and Bor-
rowdale ; but the adult male has not yet been
taken. Known also as Theridion signatum,
Blackwall.
199. Steatoda bipunctata (Linn.).
Eden Valley district, Carlisle.
A few only in stables and outhouses.
Known also under Theridion.
200. Theridion tepidariorum (C. L. Koch).
Eden Valley district.
Abundant in the conservatories of the nur-
sery gardens near Carlisle and at Dalston.
201. Theridion sisyphium (Clerck).
Eden Valley district.
Plentiful on holly and gorse bushes in the
neighbourhood of Carlisle. Known also as
T. nervosum, Blackwall.
202. Theridion pictum (Walckenaer).
Eden Valley district.
Abundant in the nursery gardens near Car-
lisle, and also amongst gorse bushes on the
banks of the Eden in June.
203. Theridion varians, Hahn.
Eden Valley and Lake district.
155
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
204. Thertdion denticulatum (Walckenaer).
Eden Valley and Lake district.
Abundant on stone walls near Lodore,
Derwentwater, in July.
205. Thertdion vittatum, C. L. Koch.
Eden Valley district.
Rose Castle, Dalston, on railings in June.
Known also as T. pukhellum.
206. Thertdion pallem, Blackwall.
Eden Valley district.
Common on the foliage of trees at Weth-
eral and near Carlisle in May and June. The
curious little white egg-cocoon, like an in-
verted peg-top with four small lateral promin-
ences, is fastened by the broad end to the
surface of the leaves and not balanced on or
hanging by the point as usually represented.
207. Thertdion ovatum (Clerck).
Eden Valley and Lake district.
Plentiful on bramble bushes, where the
female constructs her sea-green egg-sac within
a folded leaf in June and July. Known also
as Phyllonethis lineata.
208. Thertdion lepidum (Walckenaer).
Lake district.
A few examples only under a stone on the
Tilberthwaite Fells, Coniston, in July.
Known also as Phyllonethis instabilis.
209. Pedanostethus lividus (Blackwall).
Eden Valley and Lake districts.
Abundant under stones throughout the
summer. Known also under Neriene.
210. Enoplognatha thoracica (Hahn).
Eskdale (A. R. J.).
Females only taken under stones on the
fells and on bushes in the valleys.
211. Pholcomma gihbum (Westring).
Solway Moss.
Not common ; amongst dry grass. Known
also under Theridion.
ULOBORIDiE
The species of this family are remarkable for the possession of the calamistrum and cri-
bellum, but many of the spiders construct an orbicular web similar to that of many members
of the Jrgiopidte. They are very rare in England, being mostly denizens of the tropics.
212. Hyptiotes paradoxus (C. L. Koch).
Grange ; Lake district (J. H.).
Though comparatively a small spider it is
of great interest on account of its extraordinary
habits. Most of the orb-web spinners having
constructed their net retire into a hiding-place
having a line leading from the centre of the
web to the retreat. This line they hold with
the claws of a fore-leg, and thus receive instant
notice of any insect touching the web and
viscid lines. Directly this occurs the line is
often jerked several times to encourage the
entanglement of the insect, and the spider
hastens to ascertain the nature of its capture.
Hyptiotes however derives an even more re-
fined amusement from the daily task of pro-
viding itself with food. In this case the web
is simply an isosceles triangle with cross-lines
between the legs and the central radius, the
legs being continued further than the base
and fastened to a twig. From the apex of
the triangle, which lies horizontally, a line is
attached and held in the claws of the first two
pairs of legs of the spider, being also attached
to a twig a short distance behind the spider.
and held in the claws of the two hind pairs of
legs. This trap-line, as it is called, is gathered
in a coil close to the spinners and held fast
while the web is strained tight. Directly an
insect touches the net, Hyptiotes lets go the
slack, the net springs back and naturally falls
more or less loosely on the struggling insect ;
while the spider, still holding tight to the
trap-line with its fore claws, is dragged for-
ward by the spring of the net. Sometimes
the slack is drawn in again and the net again
sprung to make sure of a capture. I have
observed cases in which the trap-line is not
continuous but broken oflF, and the hinder
portion proceeds directly from the spinners.
The web has also often more than one central
radius, but beyond slight differences such as
these the mode of operation is the same in all
cases which have come under my notice.
These very rare spiders have only been
elsewhere taken in the New Forest, Hamp-
shire, and the specimen taken by Mr. Hodg-
kinson in 1868 was the first record for Great
Britain, and remained the only record until
1894.
DICTYNID^
The species possess the calamistrum and cribellum and three tarsal claws, but the eyes,
eight in number, are situated in two transverse rows, the laterals being in contact. They con-
156
SPIDERS
struct a tubular retreat with an outer sheet of webbing which is covered with flocculent silk
made with the calamistrum with threads from the cribellum.
213. Amaurobius ferox (Walckenaer). 216. Dictyna arundinacea (Linnaeus).
Eden Valley, Carlisle. Lake districts.
Known also under Ciniflo. Known also as Ergatis benigna.
214. Amaurobius similis (Blackwall). 217. Dictyna uncinata, Thorell.
Eden Valley ; Solway and Lake districts. Eden Valley and Lake districts.
Known also under Ciniflo. or-.- 1^
218. Dictyna latens (Fabncius).
215. Amaurobius fenestralis (Stroem.). Eskdale (A. R. J.).
Eden Valley and Lake districts. Fairly common on gorse bushes in August
Known also as Ciniflo atrox. and September.
CHERNETES
CHELIFERIDiE
Out of twenty species of false scorpions hitherto recorded as indigenous to Great Britain
only two have been taken in this county. The various species can usually be found amongst
moss and dead leaves or beneath stones and the bark of trees. They are unmistakable on
account of their possession of a pair of forcipated palpi like those of the true scorpion. These
are usually extended wide open when the Arachnid is alarmed while it hastens backward to
take shelter. The two species which have occurred in this county are the following : —
219. Obisium muscorum (Leach). 220. Chernes nodosus (Schrank).
Carlisle ; Armathwaite ; Wreay. Carlisle.
Common in the woods amongst dead This species is usually found attached to a
leaves. fly by the forcipated palpi.
OPILIONES
The harvestmen are spider-like creatures with eight long legs, the tarsi very long and
flexible. Eyes simple, two in number, situated og each side of an eye eminence. Body not
divided into two distinct regions by a narrow pedicle as in spiders ; abdomen segmentate.
221. Phalangium opilio, Linn. 224. Oligolophus morio, Fabricius.
Solway district. Lake districts.
222. Phalangium parietinum, De Geer. 225. Oligolophus agrestis, Meade.
Carlisle. Eden Valley.
223. Megabunus insignis, Meade. 226. Nemastoma lugubre, O. F. Muller.
Eden Valley. Solway district.
157
CRUSTACEANS
The abundance and variety of the marine Crustacea recorded from
the waters of Lancashire to the south, from the Isle of Man on the west
and from the Firth of Clyde to the north of this county are an ample
guarantee that Cumberland itself is richly supplied with a similar fauna.
Many crustaceans are rapid and powerful swimmers. Some walk and
run with great agility. Those that can only tardily creep and crawl often
have a tortoise-like perseverance. Many are carried along by currents.
Many attach themselves more or less permanently to divers kinds of moving
objects. Almost all or not improbably all are so extremely prolific that
the wide dispersal of their offspring is an obvious necessity of existence, and
is well provided for in the restless waters they inhabit. It follows that no
county can plume itself except quite accidentally on the possession of
species denied to its immediate neighbours. Occasionally an erratic may
be brought by a warm current or a cold current from some alien climate,
or may come from far distant waters entangled among the incrustations
on the sides of an ocean-going vessel. Such strangers, if they can main-
tain their ground, will soon spread from the port of entry to adjacent
points of vantage. The neglect then which has befallen this branch of
the marine fauna of Cumberland must not in any way be attributed to
dearth of materials. All that can be fairly inferred is that the coast line
by its bold protrusion westward has proved unattractive to collectors. The
naturalist usually prefers to work in tranquil bays and the retired nooks
of winding inlets, leaving the treasures of exposed waters to such adven-
turers as Horace describes with ribs of oak and triple bronze.
In regard to the inland crustaceans of the county there is much
interesting information available. Unfortunately for the terrestrial iso-
poda or woodlice I have only been able to find a single notice. This
however testifies to their occurrence and to a singular community of
taste between them and several other kinds of Arthropoda. In a paper
entitled ' Reminiscences in the Study of Natural History ' Mr. Tom
Duckworth describes the process of sugaring trees with rum and treacle
for entomological purposes just before dark and waiting till the moths
began to fly, after which, he continues, ' if it were a good night, we
were pretty busy for some time boxing the insects ; then came a lull,
and after a little rest other species came to our sweet compound. I
don't know what teetotalers may think, but I have seen centipedes,
woodlice, earwigs, beetles, spiders, and slugs all attracted to the mix-
ture. I have seen them with their eyes shining like little globes of fire
158
CRUSTACEANS
fall off the trees helplessly drunk.' ^ It would have added much to the
interest of this passage had the author been able to discriminate a little,
smce, though the general intoxication is credible, the globes of fire do
not seem equally probable in slugs and spiders as in beetles and wood-
lice.
The well-known amphipod Gammarus pulex was brought to me
some years ago by a friend from a mountain tarn in the Lake district.
The specimens and records of locality were unluckily destroyed by fire,
but this is of less importance, as it may be taken for granted that the
species is not confined to a single tarn but generally distributed.
Dr. G. S. Brady's paper ' On Entomostraca Collected in the Solway
District ' might be relied on for attributing to Cumberland several marine
and brackish water species of Ostrac6da and Copepoda. But the evidence
is weakened by the circumstance that his collections were confined to the
Scottish side of the firth. ^
For the freshwater Entomostraca of the county there are definite
reports by several competent observers. From their investigations,
though confessedly incomplete, a fair conception may be formed of
the diversity, the multitude, and the value of the living creatures in
question. None however can be brought to understand the fascination
of studying these minute objects except by studying them. It is a case
in which it may be truly said that the appetite comes by eating.
The Entomostraca are divided into three orders, Branchi6poda,
Ostracoda and Copepoda. The Branchiopoda are again divided into four
sub-orders, all of which are likely enough to be represented in Cumber-
land, although actual records entitle us to deal with only one of them,
the Clad6cera. This is by far the most extensive of the four, but the
animals in most of its species are the smallest. One of them, Alonella
nana (Baird), claims to be the smallest arthropod known, a hundred and
ten specimens placed end to end being required to cover an inch.' The
name Cladocera means ' branching antenna,' and this should be borne in
mind, as it refers to a characteristic feature alike important for the loco-
motion of the animals and for the discrimination of their families and
genera. For though all the species, with a solitary exception in one
sex, have the second antennae two-branched, yet the number of the joints
is variable and so also is the number of setas with which they are armed.
Another basis of classification has been found in the varying characters of
the feet. This permits an arrangement of the genera under four sections,
each with a significant name. The Ctenopoda, or ' comb-footed,' have
six pairs of feet, all similar, leaf-like, branchial, non-prehensile, and fur-
nished with a comb-like arrangement of sets. The Anom6poda, or
' dissimilar-footed,' that is to say with feet not all alike, have five or
six pairs, of which the front ones are more or less prehensile and non-
1 Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Association for the Advancement of Literature and
S«>«f^, No. xvii. p. 97 (Carlisle, 1893).
2 Nat. Hist. Trans. T<!orthumberland, Durham and 'Newcastle-upon-Tyne, vol. xiii. pt. i. (1895).
3 Scourfield, The Essex Naturalist, vol. x. p. 194 (1897).
159
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
branchial, while the hinder feet are as in the Ctenopoda. The Onych6-
poda, or ' nail-footed,' have only four pairs of feet, these being prehensile,
ending in strong nails, and having a toothed process at the base. The
Haplopoda, or ' simple-footed,' are so called because their six pairs of feet
are simple, without a process.^ All these sections are represented in the
waters of Cumberland.
To the Ctenopoda belongs Sida crystallina (O. F. Miiller), of which
Miss Edith M. Pratt, in her paper on ' The Entomostraca of Lake Bassen-
thwaite,' reports that ' it was the most common species taken in April,
1898. In June very few specimens were taken, but these were of a large
size, with well-developed ova and embryos.' * This species has a very
transparent carapace, and a singular apparatus on the back of its head for
attaching itself to weeds or to other objects such as the wall of an aqua-
rium. At present it stands alone in the genus Sida, but that genus itself
is one of a considerable family named after it, the Sididce. Among these
Sida is easy to recognize, because in its second antennas it alone combines
a three-jointed dorsal with a two-jointed ventral branch, and it alone has
a row of twenty or more simple and isolated teeth on the dorsal margin
of its tail-piece.' In the same family stands ^Daphnella brachyura^ which
Miss Pratt reports as common in lake Bassenthwaite in June but absent
in April.* The name Daphnella, applied by Baird in 1850, was pre-
occupied, and has therefore to give way to Diaphanosdma, Fischer, 1851,
and here it will be noticed that the generic name, meaning 'a diaphanous
body,' testifies to the transparency of the valves, just as the specific name
does for the crystalline Sida. How greatly this character adds to the ease
and pleasure of studying the living animals under the microscope will be
understood without any laboured discussion to prove it. In Diaphanosoma
the tail-piece has no teeth, and the very large second antennae have two
joints to the dorsal and three to the ventral branch. The species men-
tioned is far from being confined to lake Bassenthwaite. It can be
obtained also in the Sea of Galilee and in very many other parts of the
world.
The Anomopoda, being by far the largest of the four sections, is
here as commonly elsewhere the best represented. While the other
three sections have four families among them, this has four families to
itself, and within these are distributed a very considerable number of
genera and species. Of the families, the Daphniidas is that which has
been able to force itself most into notice, so that occasionally members
of it swim into the ken, not only of scientific students, but of ordinary
observers. The genus Daphnia, O. F. Miiller, is credited with about a
hundred species and varieties. But these species and varieties are not all
credited with being ' good ' in the scientific sense of that much enduring
epithet. The characters on which they have been founded often prove
1 Jules Richard, Ann. Set. Nat., ser. 7, vol. xviii. p. 331.
* Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 471 (1898).
3 J. Richard, Ann. Set. Nat., ser. 7, vol. xviii. p. 335. On p. 337 the words ventrak and doriak
are accidentally transposed.
* Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 470.
160
CRUSTACEANS
to be so provokingly variable that the new names which they have lured
authors into inventing for their specification eventually only confuse the
story instead of helping to unravel the plot. When the same name may
easily be applied to two or more forms really though not obviously dis-
tinct, or a single species may be called unwittingly by several different
names, local records are inevitably exposed to some indefiniteness. The
' common water-flea ' is Daphnia pulex (Linn.), or D. pulex, de Geer, or
D. pulex, Latreille, or D. pulex, Baird, or D. pulex, Leydig, or D. pulex
of a great many other authorities. But, according to Dr. Jules Richard,
Leydig was the first to give such a description as can be depended upon
for isolating the form he was describing. Miss Pratt reports from lake
Bassenthwaite ' Daphnia pulex, Latreille,' and remarks upon it that ' this
species, while being widely distributed in pools and ditches in Britain,
occurs but rarely in large sheets of water ; it was very rare in Bassen-
thwaite in April and no specimens were taken in June.' ^ A reference
is added to Baird's British Entomostraca, but the number of the plate is
unluckily misprinted. The name of Latreille is of no assistance, as he
did not contribute any first-hand information to this particular subject.
Of a nearly allied species, Daphnia obtusa, Kurz, Dr. G. S. Brady states
that he has ' found it in a shallow pool on the line of the Roman wall
near Garthside, Walton, Cumberland (July, 1897),' and in his account of
Daphnia propinqua, G. O. Sars, which he agrees with Richard in regard-
ing as a variety oi Daphnia obtusa, he says, ' In the summer of 1897, in a
shallow pool by the side of the Irthing at Walton, Cumberland, I took
many specimens, all of them immature, which seem to be referable either
to obtusa or its variety.' * This variety was reared by Sars out of dried
mud sent from the Cape of Good Hope, and its propinquity to Daphnia
obtusa is so close that Dr. Richard apparently upholds it more out of
respect to the distinction of its author than for any other distinction.
Even in regard to the original D. obtusa he observes, ' Like D. pulex, this
species does not always appear identical with itself ; the variations may
be tolerably extensive. Many authors even consider D. obtusa to be a
variety of D. pulex, and it is certain that it has often been mentioned
under the latter name.' ^ As to its geographical distribution he declares
that it appears to be much more common than D. pulex, and that probably
a great number of the localities attributed to the latter ought to be re-
ferred to the former.* Of Daphnia longispina Miss Pratt says, 'This
species was taken by Beck in the English lakes and by Scott in some of
the Scottish lochs. It was rare [in Bassenthwaite] in April and no speci-
mens were taken in June.' * No author's name is given for the species,
but a reference to ' Daphnia longispina, Baird,' which should have been
Daphnia pulex, var. longispina. The specific name dates back to O. F.
Miiller in 1785, and is allowed to stand in spite of the vagueness attach-
* Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 472.
* Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumberland, etc., vol. xiii. pt. ii. pp. 224, 226.
* Ann. Sci. Nat., ser. 8, vol. ii. p. 259. * Loc. cit. p. 261.
6 Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 472.
I l6l M
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
ing to descriptions of that early period. By Sars it is held to be even
more variable than D. pulex, so that he was led to make out of it several
distinct species, which he has since reduced to the rank of varieties. To
that which Baird figures Dr. Richard gives the designation ' Daphnia
longispina, O. F. M., var. leydigi^ Hellich.' According to the French
author, ' one may say without exaggeration that there are as many forms
of D. longispina as there are localities for it.' ^ The long spine to which
the specific name refers is the strongly produced hinder extremity of the
carapace, while in D. pulex this caudal spine is very short and in D.
obtusa rudimentary or wanting. Moreover in the two latter species the
terminal claws or ungues of the body are provided with secondary den-
ticles, whereas in D. longispina they are simply ciliated.
To the same family of the Daphniidas belongs Moina rectirostris (O.
F. Miiller), which in comparison with the forms already discussed may
be set down as one of the very rare species. Dr. Brady in 1898 says,
' I have myself only once met with it in a pond on Walton Common
near Brampton, Cumberland, July, 1897.'^ The genus is easily distin-
guished from Daphnia, because the valves, though they have rounded
corners, are quadrangular instead of oval, and the head by a constriction
all round has the appearance of being articulated, whereas in Daphnia the
hind margin of the shell is as a rule continuous. In spite too of the
specific name rectirostris, the head is not produced downward into a pro-
minent beak or rostrum as it is in Daphnia.
From the next family, the Bosminidae, Miss Pratt reports the occur-
rence of Bosmina longirostris (O. F. Miiller), remarking, 'This species
appears to be fairly common and widely distributed in Britain. In
Bassenthwaite it was very common in all the tow-nettings in April,
but rare in June.' ^ This minute animal looks as if it had a trunk like
an elephant. To this appearance the specific name refers, though rather
inaccurately, because it is not the rostrum itself that is so very long, but
the first antenns which are attached to its apex, and by their close
proximity seem in lateral view to be an actual prolongation of it. The
Bosminidas, like the Daphniids, have four joints to the dorsal and three
to the ventral branch of the second antenna, but these appendages, unlike
those of the Daphniidas, are small instead of large. Here also the feet
are equally spaced, instead of having the fifth pair as in the preceding
family separated from the rest by a considerable interval.
A third family is represented by the exceedingly common species
Chydorus spharicus (O. F. MuUer). Miss Pratt speaks of it as Chydorus
sphcericus, Baird, and rightly says that it is ' common in ponds and ditches
in Britain almost all the year round,' including it among those species
which in Bassenthwaite were abundant in April but rare in June.* This
little spherical species was described by Miiller in 1776 as Lynceus
spharicus, and the family to which it belongs has often been called
^ Ann. Sci. Nat., ser. 8, vol, ii. pp. 277, 290.
* Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumberland, etc., vol. xiii. pt. ii. p. 245.
8 Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 471. * Loc. cit. pp. 470, 471.
162
CRUSTACEANS
Lynceids, but that name is wanted elsewhere, so that the present family
is properly named Chydoridse from the typical genus Chydorus established
for this very species by Dr. Leach in 1816. It agrees with the Bos-
minids in having five or six pairs of feet equally spaced, but is distin-
guished by having only three joints in both branches of the second
antennse. There is also another peculiarity, not difficult to observe
through the pellucid valves of various species. The intestine, which
in the two preceding families may make a more or less serpentine bend,
here goes the length, not exactly of tying itself into a knot, but of form-
ing one complete convolution and half another.
Within the compass of this same family two species were recorded
in 1867 by Norman and Brady, as having been found by the latter author
in Thirlmere. Already numerous genera had been carved out of the
original Lynceus, but not all of these at that date commended themselves
to the two writers just named as worthy of adoption. Consequently
they called the specimens from Thirlmere respectively Lynceus guttatus,
G. O. Sars, and L. exiguus, Lilljeborg.* According to the nomencla-
ture now generally accepted the former will stand as Alona guttata,
Sars, and the latter as Alonella exigua (Lilljeborg). Both occur in Nor-
way as well as in England, and in regard to the second Professor Sars
makes the interesting comment that he had at one time confused it with
A. excisa (Fischer), but had afterwards found these two little species
to be easily distinguishable, when alive, even by the unassisted eye.
Fischer's species, he explains, swims with quite a smooth motion, where-
as A. exigua gets along by jerks and rapid leaps.^
The Onychopoda possess but one family, the Polyphemids, in
which the genera are few, and of those few some are exclusively or
almost exclusively marine. There are two freshwater genera, both of
which are represented in Cumberland. These are Polyphemus, O. F.
Muller, and Bythotrephes, Leydig.
According to Miss Pratt Polyphemus pediculus (Linn.) ' was very
rare in Bassenthwaite in April, but very abundant and universally dis-
tributed at the surface and some little distance below the surface in June,
with eggs, embryos and larvae in all stages of development." In this
remarkable family the feet project from the shell and assist the antennas
in the function of swimming. The brood cavity is very large. So also
is the eye, the ever-trembling eye, which is so striking a feature in many
Cladocera. For Polyphemus Muller effectively says that the head is all
eye.
In 1883 Conrad Beck, writing ' On some new Cladocera of the
English Lakes,' makes the following remarks on Bythotrephes cederstrSmii,
Schodler : —
' The anterior portion of the head is almost entirely occupied by
the eye, a large pigment mass surrounded by a number of long trans-
1 Hat. Hist. Trans. Northumberland, etc., vol. i. pp. 381, 385 (1867).
« Vid.-Selsk. Torhandl. Christiania, No. i, (1890), p. 48.
s Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 472.
163
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
parent crystalline lenses.' ' The most striking feature however of this
Cladoceran is that it possesses an extremely long spine at the end of its
abdomen, more than twice as long as the rest of the animal itself.' ' The
matrix sometimes attains an enormous size, holding as many as from ten
to twenty embryos at a time. These are readily distinguished by their
large eyes and long spines which are curled round them.' ' The man-
dibles (fig. 4) are long and are articulated on the shell at the back ; they
curve round the body and meet in front of the mouth. In front they
have a set of large teeth. Although I have dissected several specimens
I have altogether failed to find any maxills, I cannot but think how-
ever that there must be some, although they may be rudimentary.'
' There are two known species of Bythotrephes, B. Cederstromii and B.
longimanus. The latter has never yet been found in England. These two
species, together with Polyphemus, Pleopis and Evadne, form the family
Polyphemids.' 'Distribution. I found B. Cederstromii first in Grasmere,
but subsequently in most of the large lakes in Cumberland and West-
morland. It lives in the middle of large pieces of water and seems to
be more abundant in the autumn than the spring.' ^
In passing it may be noted that the family has been augmented
since Mr. Beck's paper was published, and that the name Podon, Lillje-
borg, is now used in preference to its equivalent, Pleopis, Dana. More
important to our present purpose is Miss Pratt's record oi Bythotrephes
longimanus, Leydig, of which she observes, ' This species has not been
recorded before from the English lakes. In Bassenthwaite it was very
rare in April, but very abundant in June, with eggs, embryos, larvEe and
young.' ^ Miss Pratt calls attention to Beck's description of the com-
panion species, but was doubtless unaware that in the interval between
Beck's paper and her own Professor G. O. Sars had reduced B. cederstromii
to a synonym of B. longimanus.^ The differences on which Schodler
relied were due, it seems, only to the circumstance that he examined
specimens in good condition, while those which Leydig described and
figured were extracted from the stomach of a fish, a repository from
which the naturalist may sometimes obtain prizes, but must expect not
unfrequently to find them slightly out of repair.
The Haplopoda, like the Onychopoda, own but a single family,
namely the Leptodoridae. But this family has a special interest, because
so far as known it is only in its single genus, Leptodora, that the embryos
hatch in the nauplius stage, other Cladocera passing through this phase
of existence while still in the e^. Professor S. J. Hickson, F.R.S.,
when initiating the researches in lake Bassenthwaite, evidently felt
himself partly repaid for his trouble by this very nauplius. He
says, 'In April, 1897, when the weather was still very cold and
blasts of icy wind blew down in gusts from the snow-capped Skiddaw,
I took a few samples of the Plankton as a preliminary step to further
1 Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, ser. z, vol. iii. pp. 780-82, pi. xii. figs. 1-8 (i88?)
2 Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 472 (1898).
3 Fid.-Selsk. ForhandUnger, No. i, p. 51 (1890).
164
CRUSTACEANS
investigations. The material I then obtained proved to be of con-
siderable interest, containing among other things the interesting
Nauplius larvEB of Leptodora.'^ Of the species Leptodora hyalina, Lillje-
borg, Miss Pratt says, ' In April only the larvs and very young forms
were taken, chiefly at the surface, in Bassenthwaite. In June this species
was exceedingly abundant, with eggs, embryos, and young, but no young
larvas were taken. It was moreover confined to the middle of the lake,
where the water is deep (see map, p. 475). Very few mature specimens
were taken at the surface or at the depth of 2 feet to 4 feet, but from
6 feet to 10 feet (10 feet = greatest depths at which tow-nettings were
taken) it was taken in great quantities.' " An examination of the adult
animal will show several points which if not absolutely peculiar are
shared with but few other species, such as the large number of setas on
the second antennae, the acuteness of the mandibles, and the great length
of the tract of the body between the last pair of feet and the two dorsal
setas of the abdomen.
The Ostracoda are readily distinguished from the Cladocera by the
fact that instead of having the head distinct they keep that part in
common with the rest of the body sheltered within their two mollusc-
like valves. They no doubt occupy the waters of Cumberland in accus-
tomed variety and abundance, but the only record I have come across is
one which reports Cypris obltqua, Brady, from Derwentwater on the
authority of the late David Robertson, LL.D.^
The Copepoda have received more attention. These by their dis-
tinctly segmented body and the absence of enclosing valves wear a much
more appreciably shrimp-like aspect than the groups already discussed.
Dr. G. S. Brady has recorded five species as belonging to this county,
and Miss Pratt has recorded eleven species of which two only are
common to Dr. Brady's list, the two lists combined thus producing a
total of fourteen species, which after certain necessary modifications
becomes thirteen species and one variety. This may be regarded for the
time as a respectable assemblage, but Mr. D. J. Scourfield in 1897
reckons the known British freshwater Copepoda at fifty-four, so that the
percentage from Cumberland will easily admit of being greatly raised in
the future.
Most of the species to be mentioned belong to the family Cyclopidae
and to the well-known freshwater genus Cyclops, O. F. Muller, of which
the species are tolerably numerous, but, as M. Canu observes, differing by
characters of feeble intensity. It is impossible here to enter into all the
minute details by which they are discriminated, for which reference must
be made to such works as Dr. Brady's Monograph of the British Copepoda,
published by the Ray Society (1878-80), and the more recent German
treatise by Dr. Otto Schmeil, published in the Bibliotheca Zoologica
(1892-96).
Of Cyclops gigas, Claus, Dr. Brady says, ' I have found it plentifully in
1 Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 468. * Loc. cit. p. 471.
' Brady and Norman, Trans. R. DubRn Soc, ser. 2, vol. iv. p. 77 (1889).
165
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
many of the lakes of Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland.' ^
But in 1 89 1 he recognized that this species was not distinct from the much
older C. viridis (Jurine). The ' giant ' examples reach a length of some-
thing a little over a fifth of an inch, as distinguished from the normal
length of about one-seventh of an inch. But there are various inter-
mediate lengths, so that with only the character of size to rest upon it
is impossible to say where the species 'viridis ends and the species or
variety gigas begins.^
For Cyclops vicinus, Uljanin, 1875, Dr. Brady gives among other
localities ' Sprinkling Tarn and Ennerdale Water, Cumberland.' * But
Schmeil decides that this species is undoubtedly synonymous with C.
strenuus, Fischer, 1851. As the latter is one of the species reported
from Bassenthwaite by Miss Pratt, a deduction must be made from the
total which included it under two different names.
In regard to '■Cyclops signatus, Koch,' Miss Pratt says, 'Examples with
serrated and with simple ridge on antenns were taken. They are sup-
posed to represent different stages in development (Herrick) . This species
is widely distributed and common in Britain.'* References are added to
the accounts given in 1878 and 1891 by Dr. Brady, who in the latter
year is disposed to agree with the opinion quoted from Herrick. But
here Dr. Schmeil intervenes with a different decision to the effect that
two distinct species are in question, for which the names are respectively
C. fuscus (Jurine) and C. albidus (Jurine) . For easy marks of recognition
he points out that C. fuscus is usually gaily coloured, and that the packets
of eggs lie so close to the abdomen as to cover a not inconsiderable part
of it, whereas C. albidus is generally colourless, occasionally dark brown,
often with dark patches on certain parts, and carries the egg-packets out-
standing almost at right angles to the abdomen. The serrate ridge on the
last joint of the first antennas belongs to C. fuscus^ the simple ridge to
C. albidus. By this ruling therefore, which shows that two species have
been recorded under a single name, our original total is reinstated.
' Cyclops Thomasi, Forbes,' according to Miss Pratt, ' was rare in Bassen-
thwaite in April, this being the first time that it has been recorded from
the English lakes. No specimens were taken in June.' * This is identi-
fied by Schmeil with the earlier C. bicuspidatus, Claus. Dr. Brady sup-
posed that Herrick might be right in considering it a mere variety of that
species, but Schmeil will not allow it even that humble measure of
distinctness.
Specimens oi Cyclops m/^wj, Claus, ' were fairly common in the middle
of the lake [Bassenthwaite] in April, but rare in June.' ^ In this species
the first antenna are fourteen-jointed as opposed to the seven teen-jointed
antenna of the species previously mentioned. For our purpose the
name is exposed to some uncertainty. Dr. Brady originally described a
species as C. lubbockii which he afterwards identified with C. insignis,
1 Ray Soc. Mmo^aph, vol. i. p. io6 (1878). « Schmeil, Bibl. Zool., vol. iv. p. loi (1892).
3 Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumberland, etc., vol. xi. pt. i. p. 78.
* Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 473. 6 Loc. cit. p. 473. * Loc. at. p. 473.
166
CRUSTACEANS
Claus, and the name quoted by Miss Pratt is given in reliance not on
Claus but on Brady. Now Dr. Schmeil is strongly disinclined to admit
the identity of C. lubbockii with C insignis, thinking the former more likely
to be a variety with fourteen-jointed antennas of C. bicuspidatus, to which
he assigns the designation ' var. odessana, Schmankewitsch.' ^
Cyclops ewarti, Brady, is one of the few species of this genus which
have strayed from inland waters into the sea. In lake Bassenthwaite
' only a few specimens of this species were taken in April and none were
taken in June.'" Its first antennas are eleven-jointed and Dr. Brady
remarks upon this, ' One is liable to look with suspicion on the validity
of small species of Cyclops with eleven-jointed antenna, seeing that the
possession of that number of joints is characteristic of one stage in the
development of the seventeen-jointed forms. But we have in this case
the swimming feet all perfectly developed and three-jointed, and no
examples of any seventeen-jointed forms were found in the gathering.' *
Cyclops affinis, Sars, ' was taken in Bassenthwaite in April, 1897, and
has not since been taken.'* The antennie are eleven-jointed.
For Cyclops kaufmanni, Uljanin, Miss Pratt gives references to Brady,
1878 and 1 891, and remarks, ' This species, although very limited from
all accounts in its distribution, was by far the most abundant species
taken in April, 1898; in June it was rare' in Bassenthwaite. Its
antennse are ten-jointed. Schmeil is doubtful whether Brady's C. kauf-
manni be the same species as that so named by Uljanin, but he had
apparently not seen Brady's new figure of the species in 1891.
Cyclops phaleratus, Koch, ' was taken in Bassenthwaite in April,
1898, when it was rather rare. No specimens were taken in June.'*
The first antennse are ten-jointed. Any doubt of this species being right-
fully attributable to Koch is removed by an interesting feature in the
species itself. Contrary to what is the case in all other members of the
genus, in this one the oviducts penetrate far into the abdomen, and Koch,
who was ignorant of their nature, so represents them in his figure.*
Cyclops serrulatus, Fischer, is said to be the commonest species of the
genus. The first antennas are twelve-jointed. ' Specimens were only
taken in Bassenthwaite in June."
From the Cyclopids we now turn to the family of the DiaptomidjE.
Diaptomus castor (Jurine) according to the often-quoted report was
taken in lake Bassenthwaite not very abundantly in April and not at all
in June.^ It should not be overlooked that Dr. Brady in 1891 modifies
what he has to say of this species in 1878.
Diaptomus gracilis, Sars, is reported from Bassenthwaite by Miss
Pratt,' and by Dr. Brady from Talkin Tarn and Tindale Tarn, Cumber-
1 Bibl. ZooL, vol. iv. p. 8z (1892).
* jinn. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 474.
* Nat. Hist, Trans. Northumberland, etc., vol. xi. pt. i. p. 87.
* Jnn. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 474. * Lac. cit. p. 474.
^ Schmeil, Bibl. Zool., vol. iv. p. 171.
'' Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 474.
8 Loc. cit. p. 476. ® Loc. cit. p. 476.
167
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
land/ Two species may possibly here be included, as Dr. Brady makes
D. graciloides, Lilljeborg, a synonym of D. gracilis, while Dr. Schmeil
keeps it distinct.
Eurytemora affinis (Poppe) is reported by Dr. Brady from Burgh
Marsh near Carlisle.^
In yet another family, the Pontellidas, is the species Acartia longi-
remis (Lilljeborg), of which Dr. Brady appears to regard Dias bifilosus,
Giesbrecht, as a variety, for while including the latter name in the
synonymy of the former he says, ' I have no note of the occurrence of
any species of Acartia in fresh or brackish water except in one locality.
Burgh Marsh, Cumberland, where I took the bijilosus form abundantly
many years ago. 'Eurytemora affinis occurred in the same pools and in
equal abundance.'^ Giesbrecht and Schmeil in 1898 make Acartia
bijilosa (Giesbrecht) an independent species, in which ' rostral-threads '
are present, whereas in A. longiremis they are wanting.*
In a preliminary note to the discussion of the Entomostraca from
lake Bassenthwaite Professor Hickson remarks that ' a complete list will
be drawn up only when a series of gatherings are taken every month for
two or three years.' Further he says, ' It is well known to fishermen
that the lakes in Cumberland vary very considerably in their " trout "
reputation. Bassenthwaite is not regarded as a very good lake for trout,
but on the other hand it contains an abundance of perch and pike. It
would be extremely interesting if in time a systematic study of the
relations between the fish fauna and the Entomostracan fauna could be
undertaken.' ^ As will have been seen from the foregoing accounts, the
seasonal distribution of these small animals cannot be determined without
rather elaborate investigation. The young and the adults are variously
affected by light, heat, available food and the extent and other conditions
of the tracts of water in which they reside. Against numerous and some-
times very formidable foes they have characters, habits and places of
retreat which supply them with some individual and temporary protec-
tion. Fortunately for the feeding of many valuable fishes these safe-
guards are only partially efficacious. Still more fortunately for the very
same purpose the Entomostracan species are preserved from extinction
not by the thrift or scruples of their voracious enemies but by their own
prodigious fertility. Of the widely distributed Diaptomus gracilis for
example Dr. Brady writes, ' By the deep-water net in depths of 50 to 80
fathoms it is often taken in abundance, and in one instance at least
(Talkin Tarn, Cumberland) I have seen the net come up from a depth of
6 or 8 feet below the surface with a dense mass consisting almost entirely
of D. gracilis.'
1 Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumberland, etc., vol. xi. pt. i. pp. 96, 98.
2 Loc. cit. p. 108. 3 Loc. cit. p. no.
* Das Tierreich, Copepoda Gymnopka, p. 153 (1898).
^ Jnn. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. ii. p. 468.
168
FISHES
The shallow waters of the Cumberland coast, with their soft bottom
and numerous sandy bars, are ill adapted to satisfy the tastes of rock-
loving fishes, which are almost entirely absent from this faunal area.
As a result we find that the account of the fishes of our fresh and
inshore waters here subjoined does not include more than loo species ;
of these many are generally distributed along the British coasts. It may
be well to draw attention to the presence of the vendace [Coregonus
vandesius) in two of our Cumbrian lakes, as well as to the relative abund-
ance of another rare form, the gwyniad {Coregonus clupeoides) in Hawes-
water and UUeswater. Nor can we omit all reference to the Alpine
charr {Salmo alpinus) for which the Lake district is famous.
Of the rarer pelagic forms that have been captured within our
inshore limits, perhaps the most interesting are the tunnies {Scombrida),
three or four species of which have occurred on various occasions in the
Solway Firth, the maigre {Sciana aquila)^ and the sword-fish {Xiphias
gladius).
TELEOSTEANS
ACANTHOPTERYGII
*I. Perch. Perca Jluviatilis, lAnn.
Locally, Basse, Barce, Barcelle {obs.).
Perch are plentiful at Talkin Tarn and in
UUeswater, as well as in smaller ponds and
rivers.
**2. Sea Bass. Morone labrax, Linn.
Locally, Perch.
A spring and summer visitant to our in-
shore waters, chiefly taken in the draught-
nets.
3. Maigre. Sciana aquila, Lac^p.
The only specimen that I have seen is one
which was procured near Whitehaven for the
Museum of that town. It was taken between
1874 and 1880. Dr. I'Anson saw it in the
hands of the taxidermist who preserved it, and
found that worthy about to dine ofiF its flesh.
It measured between 4 and 5 feet.
4. Sea Bream. Pagellus centrodontus, Dela-
roche.
An irregular visitant, sometimes present in
considerable numbers.
5. Red Mullet. Mullus barhatus, Linn.
Occasionally taken ofF the coast, but rela-
tively rare.
6. Cook Wrass. Labrus mixtus, Linn.
In November, 1897, ^''' Webster, of
Whitehaven, obtained a highly-coloured in-
dividual, which he gave to Dr. I'Anson, from
whom I received early notice of its capture.
I have never obtained any species of wrass in
the Solway Firth ; the environment provided
by our sandy bays is eminently unsuitable to a
rock-loving genus.
7. Bergylt. Sehastes nervegicuSy Mailer.
A single specimen of this northern species
was taken near Whitehaven early in August,
1894, and carried to Dr. I'Anson. When
placed in spirits, its beautiful red colour lost its
brilliancy.
*8. Miller's Thumb or Noggle-head. Cettus
gobio, Linn.
Locally, Tom Carle.
A resident in our more sluggish streams,
but seldom searched for in its natural haunts.
169
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Father-lasher or Bullhead.
Linn.
Cottus scorpius,
A plentiful species in the shallow waters of
the Solway Firth. The young are often cap-
tured in great numbers in the shrimp nets.
10. Grey Gurnard. Trigla gurnardus, Linn.
A common resident species ; the small fry
prefer the shallow inshore waters, and are
caught in great numbers in the shrimp nets.
11. Red Gurnard. Trigla cuculus, Linn.
An irregular visitant, or, if stationary, its
numbers seem to vary from year to year.
12. Sapphirine Gurnard or Tub-fish. Trigla
hirundo, Linn.
Our fishermen consider the present species
of uncommon occurrence. I received a fine
female fish from the Solway Firth in the
summer of 1894. It weighed yf lb., and was
preserved for the Carlisle Museum.
1 3. Pogge or Armed Bull-head. Agonus cata-
phractus, Linn.
A common shallow-water species, plentiful
in the tideway of the Solway Firth,
14. Lump Sucker. Cyclopterus lumpus, Linn.
Locally, Sea Hen, Lump, Sea Owl, Pad, Sea
Pad {obs.).
Not perhaps sufficiently abundant to be
termed common, but of frequent occurrence.
I have often received specimens of different
sizes from the Solway Firth.
15. Sea Snail. Liparis vulgaris, Flem.
I have not seen specimens from the open
coast ; but the sea snail is common in the
shallows of the Solway Firth.
16. Diminutive Sea Snail. Liparis montagui,
Donovan.
This small fish is taken in our inshore
water by shrimp fishermen. It has only been
observed during the summer months.
1"]. Spotted Goby. Gobius minutus, Linn.
{Gobius gracilis, Jenyns)
Locally, Groundling.
This goby is of common occurrence in the
Solway Firth,
18. White Goby. Latrunculus albus, Parnell.
A resident species, often netted by shrimpers
in the shallows of the Solway Firth,
19, John Dory. Zeus faher, Linn,
A scarce fish on this coast, and small speci-
mens seem to be more often met with than
large ones. The last I heard of was caught
in a flounder-net near Silloth in the summer
of 1898. Dr. r Anson has seen two or more
specimens which had been caught near White-
haven.
20. Scad or Horse Mackerel. Caranx tra-
churus, Linn.
An uncommon species in our inshore
waters. Curiously enough I never handled a
local specimen until December, 1897, when
a full-grown horse mackerel was found dead
on the sand near Silloth. Another was sent
to me to identify the following year. It had
been taken near Port Carlisle.
21. Mackerel. Scomber scombrus, Linn,
A common visitant, chiefly taken in draught
nets and with the trawl.
22. Tunny. Orcynus thynnus, Linn.
An irregular visitant to our inshore waters.
In August, 1893, a small specimen was sent
to me from Silloth, but owing to the heat of
the weather it was not preserved. In Feb-
ruary, 1896, a large example of the same fish
was stranded by an ebbing tide on the sands
near Skinburness. It was secured by W.
Nicol, whose attention was drawn to it by
the actions of a pair of great black-backed
gulls, which were anxiously waiting for the
tide to retire and expose the great fish. He
towed the fish up the creek opposite his house,
until it could be landed. I conveyed it to
Penrith on the following day, that it might
be preserved for the Carlisle Museum. This
fish measured 7 feet 9 inches from tip to tip.
Its greatest girth was 5 feet 2 inches. It
weighed 392 lb.
23. Germon. Orcynus germo, Lac6p.
A rare visitant, but one which has twice
come under my notice in the Solway Firth,
The first specimen was found stranded in a
creek on Burgh Marsh by a fisherman, early
in October, 1889. It was skinned by James
Smith, who brought the fresh skin to me for
identification, I purchased it and had it
mounted for the Carlisle Museum, On
October 25th, 1897, a man named Back-
house McVittie found a living specimen of
the long-finned tunny lying on the sands near
Silloth, It was still alive and strong. He
secured the prize, and then rode off on his
bicycle to Allonby to inform me that he
had found a strange fish. Unfortunately, I
was away from home, and in my absence
the fish was declined by our taxidermist, who
supposed it to be a common tunny. On
returning home, I drove over to Skinburness
and enquired for the fish, but found that
McVittie had buried it and left home. With
the help of a spade I disinterred the fish, and
found to my regret that a very fine germon
70
FISHES
had been wasted. It was too stale to pre-
serve, but had altered in appearance very little.
The length from the tip of the snout to
the fork of the tail was 38 inches, and the
greatest girth was 27^ inches. The left
pectoral fin was somewhat damaged, but the
right one, which I cut olF as a memento,
measured i6 inches. This fish did not taper
as sharply to the tail as might be inferred
from Couch's figure, with which I compared
it ; but I thought that the differehce, such as
it was, probably lay in the fact that my fish
was in better condition than that portrayed by
the Cornish naturalist.
24. Bonito. Orcynus palamys, Linn.
The only fresh specimen that has come
into our hands is the bonito preserved in the
Carlisle Museum. This specimen was sent
to me from Skinburness, where it had been
taken by John Byas. But prior to this, a
bonito of 12 lb. weight had been trawled
between Workington and Whitehaven in
September, 1856. This specimen measured
27 inches. It entered the collection of the
late Mr. Wallace, of Distington, in whose
museum I found it when his collections were
sold by auction, August, 1899.
25. Sword-fish, Xiphias gladius, Linn.
A rare visitant, occasionally captured in the
waters of the Solway Firth, On August
31, 1876, a specimen which measured about
8 feet in length, was taken in a whammle-
net in the channel between Silloth and Annan.
It was carried away to Annan, where it was
exhibited to the public at threepence a head.
The sword is described as having been entire
{Car/isle Journal, Sept. 5, 1876).
26. Greater Weever. Trachinus draco, Linn.
A rare fish inshore, since I know of no
local specimen save one which was caught off
Whitehaven, and which was, on June 20,
1 87 1, presented to J. R. Wallace of Disting-
ton, by the late Mr. Rook. It remained in
the Distington Museum until that institution
was broken up. I examined it at that time,
and retain the original label.
27. Lesser Weever. Trachinus vipera, Cuv.
and Val.
Locally, Sting-fish.
Extremely abundant in our shallow tidal
waters, sometimes causing great inconvenience
to our fishermen when sorting their shrimps
at night.
28. Dragonet. Callionymus lyra, Linn.
Of occasional occurrence. I have procured
specimens from the Solway Firth, and T. C.
Heysham did the same ; so that this fish is
probably resident in our waters.
29. Angler. Lophius piscatorius, hinn.
Locally, Devil-fish, Shoulder-fish, Monk-fish.
Not uncommon in our inshore waters. I
have seen very large anglers stranded on the
sands of the Solway Firth after stormy weather.
Small specimens are frequently taken in the
stake nets set for flounders.
30. Shanny. Blennius pholis, Linn.
I have received specimens of this small fish
from Skinburness, and believe it to be far from
uncommon.
31. Butter-fish. Centronellus gunellus, Linn.
Locally, Cat-fish.
A resident species in shallow water, but
not numerous. I have only observed its pre-
sence in the Solway Firth, but no doubt it
occurs all round our coast.
32. Viviparous Blenny.
Linn.
Zoarces viviparus,
Specimens have been procured near White-
haven, and it is occasionally met with in the
Solway Firth. I found a specimen stranded
near Cardurnock.
ANACANTHINI
33. Cod. Gadus morrhua, Linn.
Locally, Keeling, Killing {i.e. a large spent
fish) ; Robin (a poor misshapen fish) ;
Whitefish.
The line fishing for cod is often pretty good
on certain ground, as, for example, in the open
channel west of Silloth ; but at no season is
the flesh of these Cumbrian cod comparable
for excellence with that of fish from the North
Sea. At Allonby, the custom is to set lines
at the edge of the tideway — the hooks being
baited with shrimps, mussels, or sea anemones
— and to allow the fish to remain upon the
hooks until the tide ebbs. Crabs destroy many
of the codfish captured by short lines.
34. Haddock. Gadus eeglefinus, Linn.
An irregular visitant, sometimes taken ofiF
the Cumberland coast in very large numbers.
35. Whiting. Gadus merlangus^ Linn.
Locally, Silver Whiting.
A fairly common fish, but I have never
known of any large takes.
36. Pollack. Gadus pollachius, Linn.
Locally, Kellat.
I never met with this species in the Solway
Firth, but there is good pollack fishing near
St. Bees.
171
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
37. Coal-fish. Gadus virens, Linn,
Locally, Greenback, Bluffin, Goalmouth.
A very common fish upon our coast, occur-
ring in various stages of growth.
38. Hake. Merluccius vulgaris, Fleming.
Occasionally taken off Whitehaven, but
even there it is comparatively rare. I have
never found it in the Solway Firth.
39. Fork-beard. Phycis blennoides, Bl. Schn.
A fine specimen was sent to Yarrell from
the Solway Firth, taken on March 28, 1837.
He owed it to T. C. Heysham, who had pre-
viously had the good luck to procure two
others, one in December, 1833, *^^ other in
March, 1836. I have never met with this
fish myself in Cumbrian waters.
40. Ling. Molva vulgaris, Fleming.
This fish is often taken on long lines in
winter, but large specimens seldom enter our
estuary waters.
41. Three-bearded Rockling. Motella tricir-
rata, Bl.
Specimens of this pretty fish have been sent
to me from the Solway Firth on several occa-
sions ; always, however, as a supposed rarity.
42. Tadpole Hake. Raniceps trifurcus, Walb.
A rare visitant. A single specimen was
caught near Whitehaven in 1887, and taken
to Dr. I'Anson.
43. Halibut. Hippoglossus vulgaris, Fleming.
Large halibut are not often taken upon the
Cumberland coast, but the species is well
known to the Whitehaven fishermen.
44. Turbot. Rhombus maximus, Linn.
Locally, Chicken Turbot (referring to the
comparatively small size of most local
specimens).
Turbot are not plentiful in our inshore
waters, and their numbers vary in different
seasons ; but a few specimens are taken every
summer, sometimes in nets, and occasionally
upon shore lines.
45. Brill. Rhombus lavis, Linn.
Locally, Brett.
A common fish in the Solway Firth, though
ot uncertain abundance. Several stone of
these fishes are sometimes taken in a single
tide, but such an experience is, of course, very
exceptional.
46. Common Topknot. Zeugopterus punctatus,
Bloch.
A single specimen was once taken in the
Solway Firth near Cardunock, and forwarded
to a Mrs. Miller in the Fishmarket at Carlisle,
who sent it on to T. C. Heysham. I have
never met with any topknot locally.
47. Plaice. Pleuronectes platessa, Linn.
A very abundant fish at almost all stages of
life. Crowds of tiny plaice find their way
into the shrimp nets. Older specimens fill
the trawl nets with many stones weight.
48. Dab. Pleuronectes limanda, Linn.
This fish frequents our sand banks like the
plaice, and is often taken in our inshore waters
in considerable numbers.
49. Lemon-Dab. Pleuronectes microcephalus,
Donovan.
A summer visitant to the shallow waters of
the Solway Firth, but in limited numbers.
**50. Flounder. Pleuronectes flesus, Linn.
Locally, White Flounder, Black Flounder
(according to colour).
A resident species of wonderful fecundity,
netted in many ways, speared in shallow water,
hooked on short lines, and yet always one of
the most common fish in our inshore waters.
51. Sole. Solea vulgaris, Quens.
A resident but decreasing species ; fine
specimens are scarce. One of the largest that
I have seen of late years was caught on a line
at AUonby, in July, 1899 ; it weighed if lb.
52. Lemon Sole or French Sole. Solea lascaris,
Risso ; Solea aurantiaca, GUnther.
A summer visitant to our inshore waters,
often trawled in fair numbers. On one occa-
sion I saw a good many lemon soles netted a
few miles west of Silloth.
PERCESOCES
**53. Grey Mullet. Mugil capito, Cuv.
At one time a fair quantity of grey mullet
used to be taken at Drigg ; and though I was
informed some years ago that this species had
become less numerous, there can be no doubt
that it is tolerably common in our waters. In
July, 1899, I saw the head and shoulders of a
large grey mullet, which I was assured had
weighed 12^ lb. It had been taken near
Silloth, where grey mullet are not unfrequently
enclosed in the draught nets among other
species of fish.-
54. Larger Launce or Sand-Eel. Ammodytes
lanceolatus, Lesauv.
A rare species in the waters of the Solway
Firth, though the sandy bottoms seem admir-
ably adapted to suit its requirements. I have
not been able to ascertain whether it frequents
the open coast.
172
FISHES
55. Lesser Launce. Jmmodytes tobianus, Linn.
Locally, Sand-Eel.
Exceedingly abundant on all suitable parts
of the coast, and preyed upon by birds of
many species.
56. Garfish. Belone vulgaris, Fleming.
Locally, Horn-Eel, Mackerel Guide, Herring
Guide.
Of occasional occurrence, generally during
the summer months, when gravid females are
sometimes taken in brackish water, as, for
example, at the mouth of the Eden.
57- Saury. Scombresox saurus, Walb.
Rarer in our inshore waters than the pre-
ceding species. Dr. I' Anson showed me a
specimen taken near Whitehaven in 1890.
Curiously enough, it was caught with a hook
and line by a boy who was fishing oiF the
Whitehaven quay. I have seen two or three
others, all of which had been left by the tide
upon the shores of the Solway Firth.
HEMIBRANCHII
**58. Three-spined Stickleback. Gastrosteus
aculeatus, Linn.
Locally, Cock-hardy (male), Hen-hardy (fe-
male).
A common resident in becks and ditches.
The marine form, G. trachurus, frequents the
creeks of the salt marshes. I have also seen
many in the nets of shrimpers. The late
Captain Kinsey Dover, procured some ex-
amples of the four spined variety (var. spinulosus)
from the neighbourhood of Keswick.
*59. Ten-spined Stickleback. Gastrosteus
pungitius, Linn.
Locally, Prickly Dick.
A resident species in our smaller becks,
especially in the south of the county.
60. Fifteen-spined Stickleback. Gastrosteus
spinachia, Linn.
A visitant to the inshore waters, sometimes
numerous enough to be termed plentiful in
the Solway Firth.
LOPHOBRANCHII
61. Great Pipe-fish. Syngnathus acus, Linn.
A fairly plentiful species in the waters of
the Solway Firth. The largest that I have
seen was taken near Silloth, and measured 15^
inches.
62. Worm Pipe-fish. Nerophis lumbriciformis,
Linn.
Possibly of general distribution through our
inshore area, but the only local specimens that
I have seen were taken near Whitehaven
where it is not uncommon.
HAPLOMI
*63. Pike. Esox lucius, Linn.
Large pike exist in some of the lakes of
this county : Derwentwater, for example, and
Bassenthwaite can supply records of very heavy
fish, and big pike are sometimes taken out of
the Eden. Destructive to its own kind,
nothing comes amiss to the hungry maw of
this voracious fish ; woe betide the hapless
duckling that incautiously ventures within
reach of its cunning foe. In the thirteenth
century, the moats which then surrounded
Carlisle Castle were filled with pike ; pre-
sumably, that a supply of fish for fast days
might thus be secured to a besieged garrison.
OSTARIOPHYSI
*64. Carp. Cyprinus carpio, Linn.
Carp only exist in a few ponds, into which
they have apparently been introduced at one
time or another. Tarn Wadling, drained in
1858, was famous for the size of its carp, some
of which measured as much as 2 feet in
length and 14-^^ inches in girth.
*65. Roach. Leuciscus rutilus, Linn.
A resident species in the Eden, Irthing, and
other rivers suitable to its habits.
*66. Chub. Leuciscus cephalus, Uinn.
Locally, Skelly, Chevin (pbs.).
Only too abundant in our salmon rivers,
much to the regret of fly-fishermen. A great
many chub are destroyed in the Eden, to
make room for more sporting fishes.
*67. Dace. Leuciscus dobula,\Ann. {L, vul-
garis. Day.)
A few dace are to be found in the Eden,
between Carlisle and the estuary. Their
presence in other rivers has never been re-
ported to me.
*68. Minnow. Leuciscus phoxinus, Linn.
This small species is abundant, and serves
as valuable food to larger fishes.
*(><). Tench. Tinea vulgaris, Cuv.
Single specimens have been taken in the
Eden, near Carlisle. I never myself have
seen a local specimen, but T. C. Heysham
did so.
* 70. Bream. Abramis brama, Linn.
The late T. C. Heysham received two
specimens from the neighbourhood of Bowness,
173
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
taken in February, 1831, and May, 1832.
I have not seen any recent specimens.
* 7 1 . Loach. Nemachilus harbatulus, Linn,
Locally, Liggy, Tommy Loach, Gobbly.
A common resident in our smaller streams.
MALACOPTERYGII
** 72. Salmon. Salmo salar, Linn.
A source of much expense and some little
revenue, the salmon is still an object of the
deepest solicitude to a large portion of our
local population. It remains to be seen wrhat
measures can be adopted to augment the sport
wrhich it supplies. Pages might be filled with
tales of the amusing ruses practised by salmon
poachers, but many of their pranks vsrould
have been lightly regarded in earlier days.
Salmon used to be sent up to London on horses
from Carlisle and Workington, which, travel-
ling night and day, delivered the fish in such
fresh condition that it fetched from half a
crown to four shillings a pound. I refer to
the middle of the eighteenth century. The
weight of Eden and Esk salmon do not, of
course, come up to those from some Scottish
rivers, such as the Tay. One of the best fish
ever taken out of the Eden was the male
salmon caught by Mr. Francis, in 1888. It
was landed after being played for half an hour,
and scaled 55^ lb.
**73. Sea Trout. Salmo trutta, Fleming.
Locally, Wliiting (immature fish).
The Esk is specially famous for the sport to
be obtained with the immature fish, known
locally as ' whiting.' These young fish begin
to run in Jime, when they average four or five
to a pound, but improve in condition until in
August they reach half a pound or even a
pound apiece. A few sea trout are taken
from time to time in our estuaries and larger
rivers. Occasionally they become entangled
in drift nets on the open coast.
* 74. Common Trout. Salmo fario, Linn.
Cumberland is a county of many trout
streams, and the lakes are reputed to contain
very large fish, sometimes erroneously called
'great lake trout.' Ulleswater was formerly
famous for 'grey trout,' supposed to weigh
from 30 to 40 lb.
*75. Alpine Charr. Salmo alpinus, Linn.
Charr were indigenous to Ulleswater, Enner-
dale Lake, Buttermere, Crummockwater, as
well as several lakes in Westmorland. They
are reported to have become extinct in Ulles-
water.
76. Smelt. Osmerus eperlanus, Linn.
Locally, Sparling.
The sparling fishing in the Solway Firth is
an industry of considerable importance. The
best takes are generally made in September,
but the industry is continued during the winter.
*77' Gwyniad. Coregonus clupeoides, Lacip.
Locally, Skelly.
This fish was formerly abundant in Ulles-
water, and in autumn congregated in large
shoals, known to the dalesmen as schools. In
recent years the numbers decreased, but of late
the number of ' skellies ' netted in the lake
has increased. It sometimes happens that
this fish enters the Eamont and subsequently
the Eden.
*78. Vendace, Coregonus vandesius, Bdch.
This species inhabits Derwentwater and
Bassenthwaite Lake, but is seldom taken alive,
as it does not care for a bait. Those that are
procured have usually been washed up at the
side of Derwentwater after a storm.
*79. Grayling. Thyma llus vexillifer, hinn.
The grayling was first introduced into the
Eden about i860 by the late Mr. Carruthers,
of Eden Grove, but it died out in the lower
reaches of the river about 1880. In 1883
the species was re-introduced, in the upper
waters of the same river, near Appleby, whence
it has descended into our county waters.
80. Anchovy. Engraulis encrasicholus, Linn.
An occasional visitant. In the summer of
1890 a small number of anchovies entered
the Solway Firth, and about a score were
caught near Silloth.
81. Herring. Clupea harengus, Linn.
Locally, Rock Herring (for large race).
The herring fisheries of the Solway Firth
were once remunerative, but evil days followed.
The fish deserted the Firth, the boats rotted,
and so did the nets. The custom of spreading
small nets on the edge of the sands, to be
lifted by the flowing tide, still survives at
Allonby. But the number of herrings so
secured is very small. Maryport and White-
haven boats occasionally secure huge catches.
82. Sprat. Clupea sprattus, Linn.
A very common fish in our inshore waters
at certain seasons.
**83. Shad. Clupea alosa, hinn.
An occasional summer visitant to inshore
waters, such as the mouth of the Eden, in
which specimens have been taken ; the males
being full of milt in the month of June.
174
FISHES
** 84. Thwait. Clupea finta, Cuv.
An uncommon visitant, having been taken
within our inshore limits in a very few in-
stances. The Distington Museum contained
a specimen caught near Harrington.
APODES
**85. Eel. Jnguilla vu/garis, TvLTt.
Abundant in our lakes and ponds, the
broad-nosed males are chiefly found in the
lower portions of our rivers. Quantities of
eels used at one time to be speared in Ulles-
water on summer mornings.
86. Conger. Conger vulgaris, Cuv.
This voracious fish is taken in considerable
numbers at the entrance to the Solway Firth,
while small specimens are of frequent occur-
rence inshore.
GANOIDS
**87. Sturgeon. Jcipenser sturio, Linn.
A summer visitant ; adult specimens occa-
sionally endeavour to enter the mouths of the
larger rivers between April and July, when
the females are gravid. I have known of
large sturgeon being taken in the Solway
Firth on a good many occasions, both in
draught nets and with the haf net. A fish
which I saw in July, 1891, soon after its cap-
ture in the Eden a few miles below Carlisle,
weighed 1 1 stones, but a specimen was taken
ofiF Flimby in July, 1850, which weighed 17
stones, and measured 8 feet 6 inches. On
July 2, 1900, John Byas secured a female
sturgeon which measured about 1O5 feet
and weighed 35 stones. It was stranded on
the sands at Skinburness, as was a male fish
secured by the same fisherman eight days
later. The latter measured about 6-^ feet,
and weighed 16 stones.
CHONDROPTERYGIANS
88. Tope. Galeus vulgaris, Flem.
Locally, Blue-black, Bastard Shark.
A common species on our coast, especially
in autumn, when 20 or 30 are sometimes
taken at one draw of a draught net.
89. Porbeagle. Lamna cornubica, Gmelin.
An occasional visitant. I examined a large
specimen of this shark at Whitehaven, and
found it to measure 7 feet 9 inches in length.
It had been taken with the trawl off St. Bees,
October 30, 1889. When hauled into the
trawler, it disgorged a number of plaice and
other flat fishes.
90. Small-spotted Dog-fish. Scyllium canimla,
Linn.
Not imcommon on our open coast, but I
have not met with it in the highest part of
the Solway Firth.
91. Picked Dog-fish, /icanthias vulgaris, ^isso.
Locally, Bastard Shark.
Not usually abundant in our inshore waters.
But it occurs pretty frequently off White-
haven.
92. Mouse-fish or Angel. Rhina squatina,
Linn.
Rarely taken by our fishermen. Dr. Hey-
sham knew of a male and female which were
caught near St. Bees in the autumn of 1793
and carried about the country as curiosities.
Dr. I' Anson showed me a specimen taken in
the same neighbourhood in January, 1884.
93. Torpedo. Torpedo hebetans, Lowe.
A rare visitant. The first identified locally
was caught near Whitehaven in October,
1880. A second specimen was procured in
the same neighbourhood in November, 1882.
94. Thornback. Raia clavata, Linn.
A very abundant species in inshore waters,
preying largely upon the common shrimp, of
which it must consume great quantities.
95. Starry Ray. Raia radiata, Donovan.
Locally, Star Ray.
A scarce species, occasionally taken off
Whitehaven, whence I received a specimen
in July, 1 891.
96. True Skate. Raia batis, Linn.
Locally, Bluet, Maid.
A very plentiful species, often taken with
the trawl, and, in winter, with long lines.
97. Long-nosed Skate. Raia vomer. Fries.
This species is occasionally taken off Drigg.
The only specimen that ever occurred to W.
Nicol was caught in a stake net off Grune
Point. It was a large fish, weighing about
30 lb.
175
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
CYCLOSTOMES
**98. Sea Lamprey.
Linn.
The Eden was at one time famous for the
excellence of its lampreys, which were specially
reserved in some titles of river rights. The
Esk was also visited for spawning purposes.
This species has been taken of late years in
a very few instances. On July 20, 1898, I
purchased a lamprey weighing about 2J lb.,
which had been taken in the Eden, a beautifully
coloured fish. It was in company with another
which eluded capture.
Petromyzon marinus, * 99. Lampern. Petromyzon fluviatilis^ Linn.
Fairly numerous in our larger rivers. Great
numbers have been killed in the Eden by
sudden frost.
*I00. Mud Lamprey. Petromyzon bronchia lis,
Linn.
Locally, Lamper Eel.
Not uncommon in small becks in the Eden
valley and north and west of the county. It
is delightful to watch the engineering feats
displayed by this tiny fish in moving stones
from the gravelly bottom of a clear stream.
Note. — A single asterisk (*) accompanies the names of such species as are confined to fresh-water.
Two asterisks (**) distinguish such species as may be taken in either fresh or salt-water.
176
REPTILES
AND BATRACHIANS
The meagre fauna of the British Islands (meagre, that is, regarding
these classes of animals) renders it unnecessary for me to dwell upon the
forms indigenous to Cumberland at any length. It is possible that the
smooth snake {Coronella austriacd) may yet be found upon Bowness Moss,
where I fancied that I once recognized a pink-bellied specimen ; but, in
the meantime, the natterjack {Bufo calamitd) and the palmated newt
{Molge palmatd) must be considered the most interesting species estab-
lished within the area now under consideration. The precise distribu-
tion of the last-named animal has still to be worked out in detail.
REPTILES
LACERTILIA
1. Common Lizard. Lacerta vivipara, Jacq.
Locally, Land Ask, Dry Ask.
A common resident upon our high fells as
well as low grounds.
2. Slow-worm. Anguis fragHis^ Linn.
Very thinly distributed, but tolerably con-
stant to favourite localities.
OPHIDIA
3. Grass Snake. Tropidonotus natrix, Linn. ;
Natrix torquata, Ray.
A very local resident in wooded parts of the
county, chiefly in the south and west, though
present also in the north.
4. Viper. Vipera berus, Linn.
Locally, Hag- Worm.
Abxmdant on our moors and mosses, but I
have never met with the red variety outside
the Whitehaven Museum. That institution
possesses a specimen which was caught near
Rig House, Dean, and is remarkable for being
of a dull ferruginous red, with markings of a
dark mahogany colour.
BATRACHIANS
ECAUDATA
1. Common Frog. Rana temper aria, Linn.
Locally, Paddock.
Universally distributed, and frequently
preyed upon by polecats. I have seen many
pleasing varieties, chiefly immature specimens.
2. Common Toad. Bufo vulgar is, Laur.
Locally, Paddock.
A very abundant resident.
3. Natterjack Toad. Bufo calamita, Laur.
Unknown in the interior of the county,
I I
except at Egremont, but present at several
points of the coast abutting the Sol way Firth.
I have often obtained specimens from Castle-
town, where many of these toads frequented
an old yew hedge. I have also taken speci-
mens from Bowness to Maryport, but not
further south. At AUonby the natterjack
showed a great partiality for my strawberry
beds. It was likewise in the habit of visiting
my cellars. In my experience this species is
almost entirely nocturnal in its habits, at least,
I have never seen it stirring earlier than about
dusk.
77
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
CAUDATA
4. Great Crested Newt. Molge cristata, Laur.
6, Palmated Newt. Molge palmata, Schn.
Triton palmipes^ Daud.
A local species, but not uncommon in this
coimty. It is partial to disused brickfields.
5. Common Newt. Molge vulgaris^ Linn.
Locally, Wet Ask, Water Ask.
Very generally distributed, and regarded as
poisonous by the majority of country people.
The palmated newt has so far appeared to
be very local, but may prove to be of more
general distribution than my material has
hitherto suggested. In June, 1892, I pro-
cured specimens of both sexes from a small
pond to the north of Carlisle, which were
placed in the Carlisle Museum.
178
BIRDS
The county of Cumberland possesses a rare combination of physical
features, all of which exercise an influence upon its bird life. The hills
of such a portion of the ' Lake District ' proper as happens to be
situated within our political boundaries, were in former days the haunt
of the sea-eagle {Haliat'tus albicilld) which possessed several eyries in the
neighbourhood of Keswick. It is believed that ptarmigan {Lagopus
mutus) frequented the summits of the loftier mountains until the close of
the eighteenth century. Dotterel [Eudromias morinellus) have nested on
their slopes from time immemorial, while numerous ravens and buzzards
rear their young upon the bolder precipices. The fells of the Pennine
range are less rugged ; but they present even greater attractions to red
grouse {Lagopus scoticus) and black game [Tetrao tetrix), and are also
frequented in the breeding season by many pairs of dunlin {T'ringa alpina),
golden plover (Charadrius pluvialis), and curlews {Numenius arquata).
When we descend into the valleys, we meet with many fine stretches of
ancient woodland such as adorn the Eden valley, affording an attractive
cover to the pied flycatcher {Muscicapa atricapilld), as well as to the
various warblers {Syhiina). The lakes and rivers of Cumberland attract
a number of wildfowl in winter, but the greatest variety of birds must be
looked for in the vicinity of the Solway Firth. Many large and im-
perfectly reclaimed mosses, covered with heather and a variety of marsh
plants, such as Bowness Moss and Wedholm Flow, exist in the neigh-
bourhood of the estuaries of the Esk and Eden or the Wampool and
Waver rivers. These secluded wastes afford breeding grounds to large
quantities of gulls, including the great black-backed gull [Larus marinus)
the lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus) and the black-headed gull
{Larus ridibundus). Here the short-eared owl {Asio accipitrinui) not
infrequently deposits its white eggs under a tuft of heather, which also
affords a screen for the nests of a good many sheldrakes [tadorna cornuta),
though the larger proportion of sheldrakes nest in rabbit burrows. Hen-
harriers {Circus cyaneus) visit the flows and mosses in winter, when the
merlin is often more numerous than in the summer time. Our mosses
pass almost insensibly into the salt marshes which line the estuaries from
Floriston to Port Carlisle and Grune Point. These marshes are flat
stretches of reclaimed meadow land, used exclusively for grazing purposes,
and are drained by a network of creeks which afford feeding ground to
many waders, especially the redshank {Totanus calidris), which also
breeds plentifully upon the roughest portions of pasture. The marshes
pass into the open coast at Grune Point ; but the shores of the Solway
179
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Firth lying between Silloth and AUonby are flanked by a long stretch of
sand dunes which are tenanted in the summer by quantities of wheatears
[Saxicola cenanthe), and other small birds. The fine sandy bay which
lies between Mowbray and Maryport is visited by many species of
seafowl, and affords feeding grounds to enormous flocks of peewits
[Vanellus vulgaris) in early winter. The coast line west of Maryport is
spoilt by many iron works and other industries ; but when we approach
Whitehaven the red sandstone cliffs of St, Bees rise up from the sea level,
and offer suitable breeding ledges to the herring-gull [Larus argentatus)
and the common guillemot [Uria troile). The kestrel generally nests
upon the cliffs at Sandwith, where we once found a fine pair of pere-
grines {Falco peregrinus) established. Proceeding south we find the
coast offers little shelter for birds until we reach the Ravenglass estuary.
This locality is a winter haunt of wigeon {Mareca penelope) and many
other species of duck ; but it is chiefly remarkable for the quantity
of breeding oyster-catchers [Hamatopus ostralegus), black-headed gulls
{Larus ridibundus), and especially terns {Sternina), of which the most
interesting is the Sandwich tern {Sterna cantiaca), which lays its
handsomely marked eggs among the sand-hills of Drigg Common in
increasing numbers. The remainder of the coast is bare and exposed
until we arrive at the estuary of the Duddon. The salt marshes of the
Duddon have not been worked with the same diligent care as those of
the Solway Firth, and consequently have yielded few species of interest.
The county of Cumberland suffers, in common with Lancashire and
Cheshire, from its westerly position, which deprives us of the pleasure of
detecting as many avian waifs as are procured upon the coasts of Norfolk
and Yorkshire. It must however be borne in mind that the more
systematically any region is explored, the richer will its fauna be proved to
be. A migratory line of some importance appears to strike the Solway
Firth from the eastward, to which circumstance we are inclined to
ascribe the occurrence of such eastern or southern forms as the Isabelline
wheatear [Saxicola isabellina), the ruddy sheldrake {"Tadorna casarca),
the crane {Grus communis), the collared pratincole {Glareola pratincola),
the cream-coloured courser [Cursorius gallicus), and even the little gull
{Larus minutus).
Every true naturalist must feel regret that the sea-eagle {HaliaStus
albicilld) has ceased to rear its young among our mountain solitudes ; nor
can we view with equanimity the fact that the hen-harriers have long
ceased to rear their young upon Newton Common, or that other birds of
prey have become rarer than they were even a generation ago. The
draining of such marsh lands as Cardew Mire have deprived us of the
gratification of listening to the bellowing of the bittern {Botaurus stellaris)
on a summer's night ; the drumming of the snipe {Gallinago ccekstis) no
longer enlivens every morass as in bygone days. But we thankfully
recognize that the close of the nineteenth century finds certain other
species more firmly established than ever before, especially the star-
ling {Sturnus vulgaris), the stock-dove {Columba cenas), the sheldrake
i8o
BIRDS
{Tadorna cornuta), the redshank {Totanus calidris), the shoveler {Spatula
clypeata), and the black-headed gull {Larus ridibundus). Continued
research may possibly add to the numerical census of the Ornis of
Cumberland. At the present time (October, 1900) we recognize 259
species as having undoubtedly occurred in Cumberland.
1. Missel-Thrush. Turdus viscivorus, Linn.
Locally, Stormcock, Churr-Cock, Shell-Cock,
Shrite, Shalary, Shrailie, Mountain
Throssel.
A partial resident ; formerly rare as a breed-
ing bird (1782), but generally distributed since
the ' thirties ' ; nesting chiefly in gardens and
orchards, often in close proximity to a pair of
chaffinches. The nest is frequently built in
most exposed situations ; but the owners are
indefatigable in driving away jackdaws, mag-
pies and other marauders. Many flocks of
missel-thrushes migrate through Cumberland
in autumn.
2. Song-Thrush. Turdus musicus, Linn.
Locally, Throssel, Grey Throssel.
Resident in large numbers, and occasionally
nests in very singular positions. Some years
ago a thrush reared her yoimg in a nest built
into an old log at Burgh. In May, 1891,
another thrush built on a railway waggon
standing at the Caledonian Railway shed, Car-
lisle. The first egg had just been laid when
the nest was accidentally destroyed. A large
proportion of the thrushes annually reared in
Cumberland migrate in autumn, and probably
fall victims to the snares of foreign fowlers.
But many return in spring. On March 22nd,
1899, the fields between Cockermouth and
the Solway Firth were literally alive with flocks
of song-thrushes and blackbirds.
3. Redwing. Turdus iliacus, Linn.
Locally, Felty, Fell fo !
A numerous winter visitant, and a favourite
quarry of the sparrow-hawk. During severe
frost redwings often haunt the creeks which
drain the salt-marshes of the Solway Firth.
I have not seen an albino of this species in
Cumberland, but two pied individuals have
been obtained locally. One of these has the
entire under surface pure white.
4. Fieldfare. Turdus pilaris, Linn.
Locally, Felty, Pigeon Felty, Blue Felty,
Blue-vnng, Blue-back, Fell fo !
A winter visitor, arriving in October and
late in September, often represented by hun-
dreds and hundreds, but of varying numerical
force. The stay of this bird is rarely pro-
longed after the middle of May ; but, in 1 899,
a single bird was captured near Carlisle in
July. Some injury had probably hindered it
from departing with its fellows. Several
white and cream-coloured specimens have been
procured locally.
5. Blackbird. Turdus tnerula, Linn.
Locally, Blackie.
An abundant resident, even in elevated
districts, though less numerous where stone
walls replace thorn hedges. Many of those
reared in our midst appear to leave the country
in autumn ; their numbers being replaced in
early winter by fresh contingents which fre-
quent the turnip fields.
6. Ring-Ousel. Turdus torquatus, Linn.
Locally, Fell-Throssel, Crag-Starling, Crag-
Ousel.
A summer visitant in very moderate num-
bers ; less frequently met with among the crags
of the Lake hills than upon the fells which form
our boundaries to the east. Some individuals
reach us at the end of March ; others appear
in their summer haunts in May and April. I
have known young birds to leave their nest as
early as May 28th, and have handled newly-
fledged nestlings, with flakes of down still ad-
hering to their feathers, in August ; but the
majority of broods fly in June.
7. Wheatear. Saxicola osnanthe (Linn.).
Locally, White-rump.
The first of our summer visitants to arrive
and the last to quit our shores ; its hardy dis-
position tempts this bird to push forward its
spring journey while showers of sleet are fall-
ing in the beginning of March, but one wheat-
ear does not make a spring, for the first pioneer
often precedes the bulk of its companions by
a month or even more. The first individuals
to arrive are males, followed by flocks com-
posed of both sexes.
8. Isabelline Wheatear. Saxicola isabellina,
Rtlppell.
Early in November, 1887, I paid a hurried
visit to the Solway Firth, for the express pur-
pose of hunting for wheatears, as I had a dis-
tinct impression that a rare chat was likely to
occur. Having traversed a great extent of
coast-line unsuccessfiilly, and being obliged to
return south, I begged my friends, Mr.
Thomas Mann and his brother of Aigle Gill,
181
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
to continue the search. On November nth
a wheatear appeared in a large field upon their
farm, which perched on clods of earth like the
common species, but did not appear to be as
lively in its movements as that bird. Thomas
Mann shot the little stranger, and his brother
Richard posted it to me the same day. I
showed it in the flesh to Mr. Howard Saun-
ders, Mr. R. B. Sharpe, Mr. Ogilvie-Grant,
Mr. J. E. Harting, and the late Mr. Seebohm,
by whose concensus of opinion its identity was
at once established.
9. Whinchat. Pratincola rubetra (Linn.).
Locally, Utick, Grass-chat, Wood-chat.
A summer visitant of tolerably general dis-
tribution as a breeding bird. It has a strong
homing predilection, and will resort to a
favourite nook for several successive sum-
mers. The sweet song of the male is chiefly
uttered while the female is engaged in the
duties of incubation.
10. Stonechat. Pratincola rubicola (Linn.).
A partial resident, which had recently re-
covered from the diminution wrought in its
numbers by severe seasons, but which the
present hard winter (1899-1900) will again
render scarce. Chiefly characteristic of our
fell-sides, but breeding also in the vicinity of
the coast.
n. Redstart. Ruticilla phaenicurus (Linn.).
Locally, Jenny Red-tail.
A summer visitant, and one which often
disputes the choice of nesting sites with the
pied flycatcher, though much more generally
distributed, especially among our gardens and
wooded lonnings.
12. Black Redstart. Ruticilla titys (Scopoli).
A rare visitant, reported to have occurred
in both spring and autumn. The specimens
which have come directly under my notice
during the last seventeen years were secured in
the month of November. The only black
redstart which the late Mr. Tom Duckworth
ever saw in his native county appeared at
Home Head, Carlisle, in November, 1886,
Similarly, the only black redstart which Mr.
Mann and his brother have ever seen in their
extended experience was an immature bird
which Mr. Thomas Mann shot in a field at
Aigle Gill, November 9th, 1898. On No-
vember 17th, 1899, I sent W. Nicol, jun., to
search the foreshore between Silloth and Skin-
burness. He found a solitary black redstart
flitting about one of the jetties above tide-
mark. It was very shy and difficult to ap-
proach, but he succeeded in shooting it. I
had it preserved for the Carlisle Museum.
13. Redbreast. Erithacus rubecula (Linn.).
A partial resident, numerously represented
at almost every season, but nesting chiefly in
our large woods and copses, from which it
withdraws with the advance of autumn when
numbers migrate. I have seen a hedgerow
near the coast crowded with robins, apparently
on migration, as early as September 5th.
14. Whitethroat. Sylvia cinerea (Bechstein).
Locally, Nanny Whitethroat, Peggy, Nettle-
Creeper.
A plentiful simimer visitant, enlivening
most of our hedges with its familiar notes.
Mr. Mann shot a pretty cinnamon specimen
in September, 1888, and a few years later a
pure white specimen was brought to me. It
had been captured on the banks of the Eden
when in company with the parent birds.
15. Lesser Whitethroat. Sylvia cur ruca {Linn.),
An exceedingly scarce summer visitant, un-
known in the most exposed districts, and only
met with exceptionally in sheltered situations,
e.g. near Keswick and Carlisle.
16. Blackcap. Sylvia atricapilla (Linn.).
A summer visitant, but thinly distributed,
and present in much smaller numbers than in
the southern counties. Its delicious song sup-
plies a special charm to the wooded ghylls in
which it loves to find a summer home, preying
upon the green caterpillars which infest the
leaves of the oaks, until the elderberries hang
in dark and tempting clusters, when the black-
cap becomes frugivorous. This warbler gene-
rally leaves us in September; but, in 1898,
Mr. T. Mann shot a fine male specimen on
November 17 th, a very late date, though not
unprecedented.
17. Garden- Warbler. Sylvia hortensis {Bech-
stein).
A summer visitant to the more wooded
portions of our plain and valleys, but thinly
distributed and very scarce in the immediate
vicinity of the Solway Firth. Perhaps the
retiring habits of this bird may cause it to be
overlooked. Dr. Heysham considered it rare
a hundred years ago, though he found it nest-
ing at Carlisle in 1797.
18. Goldcrest. Regulus cristatus, Koch.
Locally, Miller's Thumb (Alston).
A fairly numerous resident in most wooded
districts, the numbers of our home-bred birds
being swelled in autumn by fresh arrivals from
other parts. The goldcrest becomes strongly
attached to particular spots. I knew of a tree
in a garden at Rockliffe, which held the nest
of a goldcrest for seven successive summers.
182
BIRDS
19. Firecrest. Regulus ignkapillus (Brehm).
A very accidental visitant. In 1845 Mr.
John Graham of Carlisle, a keen field natural-
ist, killed a firecrest at Rose Hill, near Car-
lisle. It proved to be an adult male, and was
readily distinguished from the goldcrest by the
triple dark bands on the sides of the head, and
by the golden colour above the wings.
20. ChifFchaff. Phylloscopus rufus (Bechstein).
A scarce summer visitant, arriving while
the trees and thickets that it loves are still un-
clothed with verdure, and ceaselessly reiterat-
ing the restless burden of its simple song, until
it pairs and settles down to the duties of nup-
tial life. It nests near Carlisle, Gilsland,
Keswick, Workington, etc., but in small
numbers ; a pair or two establish themselves
here and there, but no great numbers congre-
gate in any single area.
21. Willow- Warbler. Phylloscopus trochilus
(Linn.).
Locally, Miller's Thumb.
A numerous summer visitant, nesting gene-
rally throughout the county. The vernal
migration extends over several weeks, large
numbers having been found to visit the lantern
at Sandwith Lighthouse as late as May 20th,
when most of the summer visitors were ad-
vanced in the labours of incubation. The
return movement commences in early autumn ;
I have seen our hedges crowded with willow-
warblers on August loth. Two white speci-
mens, blotched with olive above, were shot
near Cummersdale in 1879; in 1885, Mr.
W. Duckworth saw a very pretty cream-
coloured variety near Warwick Bridge, on
August 5 th.
22. Wood- Warbler. Phylloscopus sibilatrix
(Bechstein).
A summer visitant, fairly represented in
well-timbered localities, but certainly local in
its choice of quarters. It is pretty to watch
the toying actions of paired birds, when their
erotic passions are in full ascendency and they
pursue their loves hither and thither in a
merry game of hide and seek among the green
leaves of the old forest trees that clothe the
banks of many of our northern rivers.
23-
Reed-Warbler.
(Vieillot).
Acrocephalus streperus
A rare summer visitant, known to have
nested once in the Eden valley. A single
specimen, probably a straggler on migration,
was seen near AUonby in the spring of 1899,
my latest note of its occurrence.
24. Sedge- Warbler. Acrocephalus phragmitis
(Bechstein).
Locally, Water-Nannie, Nightingale's Friend.
A summer visitant in large numbers, which
nests in all of our valleys, often at some distance
from any water ; though the willow garths of
our lakes and rivers aiFord him the most wel-
come cover.
Locustella navia
25. Grasshopper- Warbler.
(Boddaert).
A scarce summer visitant, more local than
any other of our regular migrants, and varying
much in numbers in different years. A few
pairs nest in four or five spots near Carlisle ;
there are also small colonies near Curthwaite,
Drumburgh and in other parts of the Solway
plain, as well as in the Eden valley and on
the eastern borders of the county ; it is less
often met with in the west of the county.
It reaches us about April 29th, and if un-
molested returns to a suitable nesting-place for
several successive years. Clutches of fresh
eggs have been found from the middle of May
to the first half of August. Both sexes sing.
William Little showed me a specimen which
he had felled with a stone in a hedge-bank
near Cumwhinton whilst engaged in singing,
and it contained a perfect egg. The song of
this warbler is heard to the greatest perfection
at dusk and in the hours of early day ; but it
is frequently poured forth in the forenoon.
26
Accentor /nodularis
Hedge - Sparrow.
(Linn.).
Locally, Dykey, Blue Dykey, Creepy-Dyke,
Hemplin (Bewcastle).
A resident of general distribution and
abundance, often met with in abnormal dress.
Mr. J. B. H. Robinson secured a white speci-
men at Kirkandrews in 1889, and the late
Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson presented a very pretty
pied example to the Preston Musevun.
27. Dipper. Cinclus aquaticus, Bechstein.
Locally, Bessy Docker, Water-Pyat, Water-
Crow.
A common resident on all our wilder
streams, delighting in picturesque situations
and nesting among the rocks in Geltsdale and
most of the prettiest waterside nooks in the
county. Occasionally the dipper betakes
itself to the margins of small inland ponds ;
but running water is most to its taste, espe-
cially where it boils and eddies among the
boulders in mid-stream. It has been found in
rare instances to desert its favourite nesting
ledges in order to build in the branclies of a
tree.
183
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
28. Whiteheaded Long-tailed Tit. Acredula
caudata (Linn.).
A rare visitant. The late Mr. Tom
Duckworth, a veteran naturalist, observed
three examples of this species in company
with about nine of the common long-tailed
tits in a lane between Orton and Thruston-
field, November 26th, 1891. The morning
was bright and frosty ; the light was excellent.
He at once reported the matter to me, and
instantly recognized a continental skin as agree-
ing precisely with the three specimens which
he had met with.
29. British Long-tailed Tit. Acredula rosea
(Blyth).
Locally, Bobble-Tit.
This tit is a fairly common bird in the
wooded districts, but is seldom or never seen
in the neighbourhood of the coast. It is very
partial to thickets at the edge of small streams,
probably owing to the abvmdance of insect
food to be obtained in such situations,
30. Great Tit. Parus major, Linn.
Locally, Blackcap, Bee-Eater.
A resident in our gardens and orchards, of
frequent occurrence all over the county.
Some years ago a great tit paired with a blue
tit and the couple nested at Crookhurst, near
Allonby. They were closely watched by
Mr. Mann, who recollects that eggs were duly
laid, but it is not known whether any hybrids
were reared from this rare union. I hesitated
to record so singular a circumstance in print
until my friend Count Arrigoni degli Oddi
showed me a painting of a hybrid between
these two species which he obtained in Italy,
and now retains in his fine collection.
31. British Coal-Tit. Parus britannicus,
Sharpe and Dresser.
A common resident in our fir plantations,
abundant in the woods round Keswick and
Penrith ; but virtually absent from treeless
wastes.
32. Marsh-Tit. Parus palustris, Linn.
A resident but very local species, not un-
common in the centre and south of the county,
and becomes more scarce in the west and
north.
33. Blue Tit. Parus caruleus, Linn.
Locally, Bluecap, Tomatty Ta.
A resident of general distribution, singularly
constant to its breeding sites. A letter-box at
Carlisle was continuously occupied by a pair
of blue tits for more than thirty years. A
curious yellow and blue variety was shot at
Cotehill by Mr. W. Little, December 25th,
1888.
34. Nuthatch. Sitta casta. Wolf.
A rare visitant. In 1782, a pair of nut-
hatches were shot at Armathwaite on May
nth, and sent to Dr. Heysham. In 1848,
Mr. T. C. Heysham was informed by a
Penrith birdstuffer named Turner that the
nuthatch was common about Lowther, and
had occurred in this county on the banks of
the Eamont. The nuthatch has been re-
ported to me from the south of the county in
recent years ; but I have neither observed the
species, nor handled a local specimen.
35. Wren. Troglodytes parvulus, Koch.
Locally, Chitty.
A numerous resident ; but the individuals
which frequent the creeks of the salt marshes
in autumn are probably immigrants. A very
pretty nestling was brought to me in the flesh
a few years ago. It had been picked up dead
in a wood near Penrith, and was of a uniform
pale primrose yellow.
36. Tree-Creeper. Certhia familiaris, Linn.
A resident, perhaps less migratory than any
other of our small birds, and common in the
wooded dales. It is not confined, however, to
dense forest. Mr. R. H. Thompson showed
me a stone wall on his property near Nunwick
in which a 'pair of creepers nested and reared
their young in the summer of 1891.
37. Pied Wagtail. Motac'illa luguhris, Tem-
minck.
Locally, Waterty Wagtail, Grey Hemplin
(Bewcastle).
A partial resident ; but chiefly a summer
migrant, returning in March, when male birds
in lovely spring dress scatter themselves over
our fell-sides, as I have observed in many wild
districts. The most curious nesting place
occupied by this species known to me was the
grease-box of an old railway waggon. Many
flocks of pied wagtails pass through the county
in autumn, adults and young birds often
journeying in company.
38. White Wagtail. Motacilla alba, Linn.
A spring immigrant, passing through the
county on the way to more northern breeding
grounds. Mr. T. C. Heysham first detected
the presence of this bird in the county in
April, 1842, and since then it has been ob-
served on many occasions, especially in the
north of the county. I believe that on one
occasion a bird of this species paired with a
pied wagtail ; the birds in question nested
near Cummersdale. Such individuals as visit
us in April, rarely prolong their stay with us
for more than a few days. In the spring of
1899, a small flock of white wagtails visited
84
BIRDS
the sea-bank near AUonby; but single in-
dividuals have more often come under my
observation than little companies.
39. Grey Wagtail. Motacilla melanope,Pa.\las.
A resident to a limited degree, but mainly
a summer visitor ; building its nest of dry
grass stems and root fibres, lined with horse-
hair, upon the banks of most of our north
country rivers, though nowhere a very nume-
rous bird.
40. Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla
flava, Linn.
A rare visitant. After searching for this
species for more than sixteen years, I at length
fell in with a single specimen in the neigh-
bourhood of AUonby. On May ist, 1899, a
single specimen appeared on the sea-bank in
company with a flock of meadow-pipits. It
was raining hard, but I long studied the
actions of the bird. It eventually flew into a
grass field, and there I was obliged to leave it.
41. Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla rait (Bona-
parte).
We never see the flocks of yellow wagtails
that are to be observed in the south-east
counties in spring ; nevertheless a few pairs
annually nest in the county. One pair nested
for two successive seasons on a small patch
of ground near the Carlisle Goods Station.
Though chiefly a summer visitant in very
small numbers, it has occurred, strange to say,
in early winter. Mr. T. Mann identified a
solitary yellow wagtail at Aigle Gill, on
November 27th, 1890.
42. Tree-Pipit. Anthm trivialis (Linn.).
A numerous summer visitor to the more
wooded districts, nesting freely in the north
and south of the coimty, but scarcer in the
west. The eggs of this pipit exhibit a number
of varieties, perhaps more than any other
species found in our area.
43. Meadow-Pipit. Anthus pratensis (Linn.).
Locally, Moss-Cheeper or Chilper, Mossie
Lingy, Moortidy.
A resident ; but large flocks migrate through
the county in spring and autumn. Present in
almost endless numbers on our fells, especially
at the fall ; indeed, its sweet but unpretentious
song enlivens many a dreary waste, while its
pertinacity in mobbing the cuckoo is unsur-
passed by any of our smaller birds. A white
specimen was sent to me from Silloth in Sep-
tember, 1888.
44. Richard's Pipit. Anthus richardi, Vieillot.
A rare visitant. Two were identified on
Barrow Side by the late Mr. W. Dickinson
in the spring of 1843. A single bird was
seen at Aigle Gill by Mr. T. Mann and his
brother in April, 1889 ; another was flushed
on Skinburness Marsh by W. Nicol in
October, 1889 ; I met with another at Bow-
ness, on Solway in September, 1891 ; none
of the foregoing specimens were secured. But
on October loth, 1898, my friend Mr. T.
Williamson was crossing Edderside Moss when
his dog flushed a Richard's pipit from some
rushes which he shot. I examined it early
next day at Aigle Gill and found it to be a
bird of the year. Mr. T. Mann and his
brother met with another example of this
large pipit in a turnip field on November 9th,
1898.
45. Rock-Pipit. Anthus obscurus (Latham).
A local resident in the neighbourhood of
the coast, particularly in the neighbourhood of
St. Bees, where a few pairs breed. I have
never met with it inland, but solitary in-
dividuals winter upon the saltings of the Sol-
way Firth, frequenting the creeks and drains.
46. Golden Oriole. Oriolus galbula, Linn.
A very rare visitant. A bird in female
dress was shot at Irton in 1857. -^ small
party of orioles was seen nearLorton in 1878.
An adult male was killed some years ago near
Penrith and taken in the flesh to Mr. T. Hope.
A female or immature male was killed in the
Caldbeck district prior to 1886. I have no
more recent records.
47. Great Grey Shrike. Lanius [excubitor,
Linn.
A rare winter visitant. I have notes of at
least seventeen specimens obtained in different
parts of the county between 1880 and 1899,
including examples secured in the neighbour-
hood of Egremont, Cockermouth, Bewcastle,
Alston, Renwick, Penrith, Wigton, Carlisle,
Brampton, Drumburgh and Skinburness. Of
these the earliest arrival was shot on Sep-
tember 13th. That some of the birds which
have passed through my hands since 1880 may
have been hybrids between the great grey
shrike and Pallas's grey shrike {Lanius major)
is highly probable. A male bird which was
shot some years ago about three miles from
Keswick must be referred to this latter species.
It is a fine adult, with a white breast almost
clear of vermiculations and a very light rump ;
there is only one white alar bar.
48. Red-backed Shrike. Lanius collurio, Linn.
A rare summer visitant, unknown in the
west of the county. It has nested near
Carlisle on two occasions, the last at Scotby in
1884, when the eggs were brought to me for
185
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
identification. It used to breed near Keswick
as long ago as 1835, and may occasionally do
so still ; but it has been very scarce in that
district for the last twenty years.
49. Woodchat Shrike. Lanius pomeranus,
Sparrman.
A very rare visitant. The late Mr. W.
Dickinson observed a woodchat shrike near
Stainburn tannery in the spring of 1872, and
stood for some minutes within twenty yards
of it. Another good observer, Mr. T.
Cooper, who obtained so many rarities for the
younger Heysham, met with a woodchat at
Woodside.
50. Waxwing. Ampelh garrulus, Linn.
A rare winter visitant. Only two large
flights of waxwings are known to have visited
the county, the first in the winter, 1786-87,
and the second in the winter of 1866-67.
But small numbers of these birds have appeared
at irregular intervals in all parts of this area
between the months of October and March,
Of recent occurrences, several appeared in
January and February, 1893, when * single
bird was shot near Penrith and others at
Carlisle ; three were seen near Keswick in
the autumn of 1894 ; two were killed near
Carlisle in January, 1895 ; two were seen at
close quarters at Wragmire Bank by Mr. W.
Little, February 19th, 1897.
51. Pied Flycatcher.
Linn.
Musckapa atrkapilla.
Locally, Laal Magpie.
A summer visitant, but much restricted in
its choice of breeding grounds ; the chief
colonies annually returning to the same well-
timbered parks, though a few pairs nest as
stragglers in the neighbourhood of our smaller
streams, or at a short distance from our lakes.
Many details of the habits of this species will
be found in the Fauna of Lakeland (pp. 123—
129), also in the Birds of Cumberland {^^. 31-
37)-
52. Spotted Flycatcher.
Linn.
Musckapa grisola,
Locally, Sea-Robin, French Robin.
A summer visitant, generally distributed in
the breeding season, though less numerous
near the coast than further inland. In 1886
a single pair reached Scotby on April 22nd,
but this date is very early. I did not meet
with this flycatcher in the north of Spain
until April 24th.
53. Swallow. Hirundo rustka, Linn.
This summer visitant reached Cockermouth
in 1872, as early as February 9th. Mr. T. C.
186
Heysham reports another early bird seen at
Carlisle on March 26th (1852); a swallow
was shot at Whitehaven in 1837 o" April
2nd, while several birds were seen hawking
insects at Carlisle on April 4th, 1896 ; but
I have no notes of any large numbers seen in
the county before the middle of April.
54. House-Martin. Chelidon urbka (Linn.).
The house-martin is rather later in reach-
ing our county than its congeners, but is also
generally distributed, though checked in its
breeding operations by the persecution of
house-sparrows. Both this and the preceding
species are subject to variation of colour ;
white, cream - coloured, pied, and bluish
varieties have come under my notice locally.
55. Sand-Martin. Cotile riparia (Linn.).
The last days of March witness the return
of this summer migrant to its favourite water-
courses. Its nesting colonies are chiefly
established in the sides of quarries and other
convenient slopes ; one pair nested in a low
ridge of sand in an open meadow at Carlisle.
I have also seen this species nesting in sand-
stone rocks near Maryport.
56. Greenfinch. Ligurinus chloris (Linn.).
Locally, Greenie.
A common resident in arable districts, but
nearly absent from treeless moors. It nests
in gardens and hedges, gathering into great
flocks in winter, when it frequents our stack-
yards with other small birds.
57. Hawfinch. Coccothraustes vulgaris, Valhts.
Though breeding in the adjoining county
of Westmorland, the hawfinch has not
hitherto become established with us. A pair
probably nested at Bridekirk in 1882, when
Canon Sutton shot a nestling out of a family
party. The hawfinch is one of our rarer
birds even in winter, though single specimens
have occurred far apart, as at Keswick, upon
Crossfell, at Cotehill and at Cockermouth ; in
the beginning of 1888 a small flock of haw-
finches appeared near Wigton, and one or two
were caught alive.
58. Goldfinch. Carduelis elegans, Stephens.
Goldfinches used to nest in most of our
sheltered vales until thirty years ago, but have
latterly become restricted as partial residents
to a few favoured spots, chiefly in the Eden
valley, and in the west of the coimty. Mr.
Hodgson, of Keswick, informed me that the
goldfinch nested near Keswick in fair num-
bers until the severe winters of 1879-80, and
1880-81, exterminated the local breed. At
Calderbridge a pair of goldfinches used to nest
BIRDS
in a pear tree belonging to Mr. Halliday for
more than fifty years ; during this long period
there was always a nest within a few inches
of the same place {Carlisle Patriot^ May 15th,
1840).
59. Siskin, Carduelis spinus (Linn.).
A winter visitant in uncertain numbers,
rarely appearing in any considerable plenty
even in the north of the county, and of com-
paratively rare occurrence among our hills.
A male preserved in the Keswick Museum
was captured by Mr. Hodgson, who assured
me that it was the only specimen that he had
ever met with in the Keswick district. One
or two favourite localities near Carlisle are
visited by siskins every winter ; they are
often caught near Drumburgh. Mr. Plender-
leath assured me that a few pairs of siskins
undoubtedly bred in the vicinity of Longtown
between 1879 and February, 1885.
60. House-Sparrow. Passer domesticus (Linn.).
Locally, Housie, Spuckie, Sprug, Craff.
An ever-increasing resident, in many dis-
tricts a pest to the farmer. Black, buff, white
and pied birds occur in a state of freedom.
This species occasionally interbreeds with the
rarer tree-sparrow.
61. Tree-Sparrow. Passer montanus (Linn.).
A resident species, but excessively local.
I have never met with it in the Lake district
proper. It has certainly bred in two instances
in East Cumberland, but its breeding stations
are very few, extending from AUonby to
Abbey and the neighbourhood of Skinburness.
62. Chaffinch. Fringilla coelebs, Linn.
Locally, Scoppie, Scobbie, Shelapple, Shiltie,
Spink, Shiwie.
A resident, but numbers visit us from other
parts in winter. An interesting migration of
chaflSnches was witnessed at AUonby on
November 4th, 1899. On turning out that
morning shortly after 7 a.m., I found that
migration was in full swing. Flock after
flock of birds followed one another at frequent
intervals, flying high and steering against the
south-west breeze. The two species most
abundantly represented were the chaffinch and
the meadow-pipit. The flocks of these two
species varied from eight to a hundred indivi-
duals, or even more. A few chaffinches,
females only so far as observed, dropped out
of the main flocks at intervals, and were to be
seen running on the ground or heard calling
' pink ' from the tops of the hedges. Many
linnets and greenfinches passed, a few sky-larks,
yellow hammers, thrushes, starlings, etc. ; but
the chaffinches seemed to vastly outnumber
all the other birds except the pipits, and thou-
sands must have passed along the coast be-
tween 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., when the move-
ment practically ceased so far as my field of
vision was concerned.
63. Brambling. Fringilla montifringilla, Linn.
Locally, Cock-o'-the-North.
A winter visitant, arriving as early as the
first days of October, but rarely numerous
earlier than November. Great numbers visited
the neighbourhood of Carlisle in the winter
1894—95, feeding principally on beech-mast.
The harsh chirrup of this bird is usually asso-
ciated with the first frosts that blanch the
summer leaves and strip the boughs of foliage ;
but I did not observe any bramblings in the
autumn of 1899 until December 14th, when
a number of these birds frequented a stackyard
at Mealo. Desiring to place a few specimens
in my aviary, I laid a small clap-net in the
snow, and captured about a dozen specimens
in the course of an hour. One of these was
a very bright-coloured male with a black
throat, a variety which I had only met with
in this county on one other occasion.
64. Linnet. Linota cannahina (Linn.).
Locally, Grey, Whin-Grey, Hemplin.
A resident of less abundance than formerly,
owing to the number of female birds killed by
birdcatchers ; but some very large flocks fre-
quent a gorse-clad bank near Maryport every
year. A white specimen was often seen near
Hay ton in September, 1898, but apparently
escaped capture.
65. Mealy Redpoll. Linota linaria (Linn.).
A rare winter visitant, though several have
been caught in recent years near Maryport,
and others have been identified in the east,
north and west of the county. I obtained a
fine series for the Carlisle Museiun, but only
one or two were local specimens.
66. Lesser Redpoll. Linota rufescens (Vieillot).
Locally, French Gtey, Banty Hemplin.
This finch breeds sporadically in most parts
of the county ; I have personally observed it
as a nesting bird near Stapleton, Brampton,
Longtown, Bowness, Carlisle, Aspatria,
Cockermouth, Bassenthwaite, Keswick, Pen-
rith, and am able to vouch for its nesting
occasionally in such upland localities as Alston
and Renwick, Varieties of this redpoll are
xmcommon ; but I had the pleasure of adding
to the Carlisle Museum a white example, shot
near Cotehill in the winter 1898-99. The
crimson feathers of the forehead are replaced
187
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
in this bird by golden yellow, and a very few
of the wing feathers are brown ; the bird is
otherwise quite white.
67. Twite. Linota flavirostris (Linn.).
Locally, Heather-Lintie.
The twite is an uncertain winter visitant,
appearing in considerable flocks in certain
seasons, but often almost entirely absent from
the county. Among the hills a few pairs
nest sporadically ; in 1884 I saw a nest with
a full clutch of eggs on Solway Moss ; a pair
or two nested on Toddles Moss for several years
in succession.
68. Bullfinch. Pyrrhula europesa, Vieillot.
The call-note of the bullfinch may be heard
upon the skirts of most of our plantations ;
the plumage of the male adds attraction to the
banks of Gilsland Spa and many other pic-
turesque nooks.
69. Crossbill. Loxia curvirostra, Linn.
An irregular visitant to our larger tracts of
pines, occasionally present in certain favourite
localities in very large numbers, but at other
times either absent or represented by a very
small number of individuals. Great numbers
of crossbills appeared in this county in August,
1838, and still lingered with us in the autumn
of 1839; other irruptions occurred in 1855,
1887 and 1894. The best authenticated nest
taken in the county was that which was built
in a small clump of Scotch firs at Cumwhitton
in March, 1856. The late James Fell often
described to me how he watched the old birds
gathering material for their nest, which he
took on March 20th when four eggs had been
laid. The food of this species does not consist
exclusively of the seeds of conifers. Some birds
killed at Penrith in May, 1895, contained in-
sects as well as fir-seeds.
Loxia
70.
pttyopsittacus
Parrot - Crossbill,
Bechstein.
A male and female of this rare visitant were
shot in the vicinity of the Irthing by the late
Mr. Proud of Headsnook. This was between
1847 ^^^ 1850. In December, 1865, the
late James Barnes of Carlisle shot out of a
larch tree at Newby Cross two birds which
he supposed to be redwings. On picking
them up he found that they were crossbills.
He followed up the survivors, and secured six
additional specimens. He preserved the birds,
and sold five of them, retaining three un-
doubted parrot-crossbills.
71. Two-barred Crossbill. Loxia bifasciata
(Brehm).
The year 1845 witnessed a western move-
ment of this species, for examples were ob-
188
tained near Stockholm, Gottenburg, and in
Scania ; as also in Denmark and in Belgium.
Some of these birds appear to have continued
their flight across the North Sea, for a con-
siderable flock made its appearance in East
Cumberland. The first specimen was shot
near Brampton by the late Thomas Taylor on
November ist, 1845. He observed two more
of these finches on January loth, 1846 ; nine
days later a fine red bird was shot by Mr.
Proud, a local gamekeeper. Its companion
which was in female dress made its escape.
On March 25th, 1846, a party of two-barred
crossbills flew into some larch trees at Castle-
steads, and nine of them were shot by a
gardener named Leslie. Five others lingered
in the vicinity until April nth.
72. Corn-Bunting. Emberiza miliaria, Linn.
Locally, Grass-Bunting, Bunting Lark.
I have met with a few individuals in most
parts of the county from Alston to White-
haven, but it disappears from many districts
after a few years, and appears in other places
without any apparent reason. It is a late
breeder, sometimes flocking gregariously as
late as the middle of May. It is never
wholly absent from the farms along the
shores of the Solway Firth.
Yellow Hammer. Emberiza citrinella,
Linn.
Locally, Spink, Yellow Yorling, Yellow Yitey.
One of our commonest residents, nesting
on common lands, and wintering in stackyards.
Several pied specimens have come under notice,
but I have not met with an albino.
74. Reed-Bunting. Emberiza schasniclus, Linn.
Locally, Black-Cap, Reed-Sparrow.
A resident in most parts of the county, but
erratic in its movements ; often to be found
feeding upon open grass lands in winter. The
half-reclaimed rushy pasture which is to be
found in the north-east of the county is es-
pecially to the liking of this bird.
75. Snow - Bunting. Plectrophenax nivalis
(Linn.).
Locally, Snowflake, Snow-Bird, Fell-Sparrow,
Cock-o'-the-North.
A winter visitant, sparingly met with upon
the slopes of the hills around our lakes, but
common all along the eastern fells, especially
in severe weather. Flocks of several hxmdred
birds occasionally appear upon our coast and salt
marshes, feeding upon grass seeds, and running
to and fro on our village greens, sometimes
venturing close to our thresholds. When dis-
turbed these buntings seldom desert a favourite
spot ; if startled, they only rise with the fami-
73
BIRDS
liar twitter, and after one or two rapid turns
in the air return to the spot whence they had
been driven a few moments previously. To
me the snow-bunting is ever a poem in
feathers, its very presence being suggestive
of rocky screes and gloomy glaciers.
76. Starling. Sturnus vulgaris, Linn. •
A scarce bird in the county at the com-
mencement of the nineteenth century the
starling has become very numerous, and now
holds its own in every possible vantage point,
adapting its existence to a variety of circum-
stances. Its present extraordinary numbers
are the more surprising when we remember
that it usually rears but one brood in a season.
Exceptions to this rule are not uncommon,
but in many districts adults and young begin
to flock in June, and pass a gregarious life
until the following spring.
77. Rose - coloured Pastor. Pastor roseus
(Linn.).
This vivacious and charming bird has been
procured within our present limits in very few
instances, chiefly in the north and west of
the county. Two specimens were killed at
Hay ton and Alston in the summer of 1837 ;
another was shot near Flimby ; others at Pap-
castle, Rose Castle, and at High Seaton. John
Dawson has often described to me how his
brother shot a rose pastor, which he treasures
in his cottage at Allonby ; the bird was ob-
tained about the year 1877. A bird of this
species was seen on several occasions near
Allonby in the summer of 1898 ; Mr. Clark-
son in particular saw it very closely near
Beckfoot.
78. Chough. Pyrrhocorax graculus (Linn.).
The Cornish chough is not known to have
bred at any time in the interior of the county,
but two or three pairs of these birds nested
in the sandstone cliflfe between St. Bees and
Whitehaven until about i860. From the
fact that this chough still breeds in a few
places in the Isle of Man, we might expect
that it would still visit us as a rare straggler.
It has, in fact, occurred in two instances since
i860, single birds being procured near Long-
town and Wigton respectively. As early as
1828 the late Dr. Stanley catalogued the
chough as rare at Whitehaven.
79. Jay. Garrulus glandarius (Linn.).
Locally, Jay-Pyat.
Fairly numerous as a resident in our larger
fir woods, especially near Penrith and Kes-
wick, of less frequent occurrence in the north
and west, breeding in favourite localities annu-
ally, appearing in others chiefly as a winter
visitant.
80. Magpie. Pica r«rt/c« (Scopoli).
Locally, Pyat.
Less widely distributed than formerly, since
every man's hand is against it ; but constantly
to be seen crossing the fields or jauntily perch-
ing on the tall thorn hedges in the neighbour-
hood of the Solway Firth, e.g. between Mary-
port and Silloth. It is also fairly common in
certain dales, and would be most abundant if
tolerated. A white specimen was found in a
nest near Lyneside some years ago.
81. Jackdaw. Corvus monedula, Linn.
Locally, Jack.
An abundant and increasing resident, fre-
quently destructive to the eggs of game birds,
especially in dry summers. A pure white
jackdaw was shot some years since near Little
Salkeld. A grey specimen frequented the
neighbourhood of Cotehill from 1888 to
1893, when it was shot. The crown was
black ; otherwise, this bird was entirely of a
uniform silver-grey.
82. Raven. Corvus cor ax, Linn.
A local resident, almost entirely confined
to the mountains in the centre and west of
the county. Indeed, ravens may be seen on
any of our higher fells east or west on a
winter day casting about in search of carrion ;
but their chief strongholds, some of them very
difficult of access, are to be looked for among
the precipices of the Lake district proper. I
placed in the Carlisle Museum a very fine
pair of old birds that had been poisoned near
their nest on Crossfell, and have likewise met
with them, though rarely, on the cliflfe at
Sandwith ; but their breeding area mainly
corresponds with the sheep farms of the
wilder regions. Mr. Marshall of Keswick
informed me in 1898 that he considered the
raven too numerous, as he could find a score
of birds any day ; but it should be borne in
mind that the region which these birds in-
habit is very limited, and that their nests
are constantly harried by those who wish to
secure either eggs or young birds. The price
formerly paid by the churchwardens for the
heads of ravens varied from one penny to
fourpence.
83. Carrion-Crow. Corvus corone, Linn.
Locally, Corbie, Dope.
A resident in many parts of the county,
scarce where absence of cover or persecution
renders any locality unsuitable, but in certain
places so well represented as to become gre-
garious. A reddish-fawn variety was reared
near Cotehill in 1884.
189
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
84. Hooded Crow. Corvus comix, Linn.
Locally, Blue Crow, Norwegian Crow.
A winter visitant in very sparing numbers ;
single birds are considered rare by the country
people, and large flocks are quite unknown
in this county. It breeds as near as the Isle
of Man, and hybrids between the present form
and the black carrion-crow have at least twice
been procured in the county. Perhaps the
finest of these is a bird obtained at St. Bees,
which I secured at the sale of the Distington
Museum in August, 1899. I purchased the
other from the widow of the late J. Barnes,
by whom it had been obtained in Wastwater.
They are preserved in the Carlisle Museum.
85. Rook. Corvus frugilegus, Linn.
Locally, Crow.
Thousands of pounds are sacrificed every
year by farmers, owing to the ravages inflicted
on their crops of corn and roots by this pest.
Proscribed in the county since at least 1620,
it continues to increase, and its damages to
turnips, potatoes and wheat are enormous.
Even after the grain has been stacked, this
voracious bird abstracts large quantities, and
by burrowing through the thatch admits the
rain into the centre of what remains. On
the sea shore it feeds upon the worms which
would otherwise supply subsistence to curlews
and other waders. It destroys a quantity of
grub ; but it is an arrant poacher, and pretty
nearly omnivorous.
86. Sky-Lark. Alauda aruensis, Linn,
A partial resident, abundant in most parts
of the county, but almost absent from a few
fell districts. As lately as the seventeenth
century, numbers of sky-larks were sold at
Carlisle and other towns for the table, gener-
ally fetching from threepence to fourpence
per dozen. Large numbers of those reared
with us appear to migrate, being replaced by
fresh arrivals from other districts, especially
after a change of weather. In 1899 a fall of
snow occurred in Scotland and the north of
England in the early hours of December 12th,
and in the neighbourhood of the Solway this
was followed by a heavy migration from north
to south or south-west. Sky-larks appeared in
great numbers, and passed along the coast from
daylight until 2 p.m.
87. Wood-Lark, /ilauda arbor ea, Linn.
A rare winter visitant to the county gener-
ally, but it occasionally breeds in the west,
e.g. at Camerton and St. Bees, and once near
Brampton. The only specimen that I have
seen from the east of the county was shot
near Alston in March, 1866, and is now in
the Carlisle Museum.
88. Shore-Lark. Otocorys alpestris (Linn.).
A rare winter visitant, hitherto met with
only in the neighbourhood of the coast-line.
In February, 1890, three shore-larks fre-
quented the edge of Skinburness Marsh for
some days when they were shot for the Car-
lisle Museum. A fine male was shot in pre-
cisely the same place in January, 1895, and
sent to Mr. W, Mackenzie. Three other
specimens had been procured at Silloth, St.
Bees and Eskmeals.
89. Swift. Cypselus apus (Linn.).
Locally, Devilin, Killdevil, Black Martin.
This summer visitant may often be seen
soaring above the crests of our highest hills,
and rears its young in many of our villages.
Though less influenced by favourable winds
for its journey northward than many other
species, the swift is most dependent upon the
presence of its favourite insects ; hence a snap
of frost in the middle of May sometimes
proves fatal to numbers of these birds.
90. Alpine Swift. Cypselus melba (Linn.).
A specimen of this fine swift was observed
at Low Mill House on July 4th, 1842. It
first attracted attention by its large size, and
was shot by the late Sir R. Brisco. It is still
preserved by his son, the present baronet, Sir
Musgrave Brisco, at Crofton, where I saw it.
91. Nightjar. Caprimulgus europaus,\Ami.
Locally, Moss-Owl, Night-Hawk.
A summer visitant to many of our mosses,
but local in its choice of breeding grounds. I
have seen fresh eggs as early as May 26th,
and unfledged young as late as September,
while my earliest and latest notes of its pre-
sence at Carlisle are April 17 th and October
13th respectively. A male was felled by an
engine while flying past the Caledonian sheds
at Carlisle, on August 17th, 1894, as early as
4 p.m., and in sunshine. This bird was in
good condition, but deep in moult.
92. Wryneck. lynx torquilla, Linn.
Formerly a regular though local summer
visitant, well known to both Heyshams as
breeding near Carlisle, where the last nest
with eggs was taken in 1863 by the late
James Fell, who often referred to it. A
single bird was felled by a catapult near Mary-
port in August, 1888; Mr. F. P. Johnson
reported the presence of this species at Castle-
steads in May, 1891, but I have not heard
of it since.
93. Green Woodpecker. Gecinus viridis
(Linn.).
A rare visitor, but a local specimen existed
in Hutton's Museum at Keswick as long ago
190
BIRDS
as 1865. The late W. Dickinson met with
a pair at Lamplugh ; and other pairs are be-
lieved to have nested in Barron Wood and
Blackw^ell Wood in single instances. In the
latter case three eggs w^ere taken from a hole
in an ash tree by W. McComish.
94. Great Spotted Woodpecker. Dendrocopm
major (Linn.).
A very scarce resident, limited as a breeding
bird to a few private parks, but the resident
birds receive some accessions to their numbers
in some autumns. Thus in 1898 a number
of these woodpeckers visited northern Britain,
and several were shot in localities so far apart
as the north of Sutherlandshire and the shore
of the Solway Firth.
95. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Dendro-
copus minor (Linn.).
A rare bird within our limits, and unknown
in the west of the county. The late B.
Greenwell obtained a specimen near Alston,
but in Northumberland. Another single bird
was obtained at Carlisle and Paw Park, while
a pair was shot at Edenhall. In 1895 a
charming pet bird of this species escaped from
me at Carlisle ; but it was never seen after-
wards.
96. Kingfisher. Alcedo ispida, Linn.
A scarce but widely-dispersed resident, each
pair selecting their own stretch of river, and
resenting the presence of all intruders. Single
birds wander in autumn, and appear on many
beck-sides from which they are absent at
other times. In January, 1890, that careful
field naturalist W. Little saw a black king-
fisher on the Eden near Rickerby. He had
a very close view of the bird, which carried a
minnow in its bill, and was certain that it
was entirely black with the exception of a few
blue feathers on the rump.
97. Roller. Coracias garrulus, Linn.
Two specimens of the roller were procured
in the county in the summer of 1868. Dr.
Lumb of Whitehaven showed me one of
the two, a bird shot by Mr. J. Dalzell near
Thornholm. The other was shot at Carleton
near Carlisle, and taken in the flesh to my old
friend Sam Watson, who recorded it as a
female, adding that it was killed on July 1 7th,
and that its stomach contained beetles and
caterpillars.
98. Hoopoe. Upupa epops, Linn.
A rare visitant, but one which has been
obtained fairly often in the west and north of
the county. A bright adult female, with a
backward ovary — the eggs in the ovary being
19
no larger than salmon roe — was shot to my
regret near Drumburgh in April, 1894. I
added this specimen to the Carlisle Museum,
together with an immature bird trapped at
Anthorn in October, 1889.
99. Cuckoo. Cuculus canorus, Linn.
Locally, Gowk.
A numerous visitant to our dales and fell-
sides, often to be seen mobbed by meadow-
pipits, which frequently alight on the back of
the cuckoo and peck vigorously at the in-
truder. The date of arrival varies. In 1899
a young cuckoo left the nest of its foster
parents (a pair of meadow-pipits) on May
2Sth, a very early date for the county.
100. White or Barn-Owl. Strix Jiammea,
Linn.
Locally, Chimney-Owl, ClifF-Owl.
A tolerably common bird, but the object of
much unworthy persecution, which prevents
its natural increase. Resident from Bew-
castle in the north to Penrith in the south of
the county.
loi. Long-eared Owl. Asio otus (Linn.).
Locally, Horned Owlet.
A local resident. Mr. T. C. Heysham
knew this owl as a breeding bird, but only
could procure one clutch of eggs in a decade.
Keepers reduce its numbers sadly with pole-
traps, but it is fairly constant in its adherence
to our older fir woods, in which it breeds very
early in the year ; eggs are sometimes laid
early in March, though owlets may be found
as late, at any rate, as June.
102. Short-eared Owl. Asio accipitrinus
(Pallas).
Locally, Moss-Owl.
A winter visitant, occasionally met with in
flocks on migration, but chiefly singly, gener-
ally disappearing from our midst in early
spring, though odd pairs breed with us. In
1897 two pairs of these owls reared their
young on mosses near Allonby. A third pair
nested on a common near Burgh, where I
photographed the eggs in situ. The eggs
were foimd in nido on April 20th, and were
then six in number ; but when I inspected
them three days later a seventh had been
laid. The moor referred to is composed of
rough heather and coarse grass, and is very
wet. On the occasion in question I had to
jump from tussock to tussock for a consider-
able distance, occasionally sinking ankle deep
in black mud, before I reached the nesting-
ground and caught sight of one of the old
owls as it skulked in the heather with its
head to windward. It was possible to dis-
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
tinguish the bird from its surroundings by the
long, prettily-barred tail ; I hoped to get a
snapshot at the bird before it rose. Un-
luckily, it was too wild to sit to the camera,
but got up with a tumbling sort of flight and
sailed off at a good height. The seven fresh
eggs were lying in a hollow in the green
moss, which was surroimded by a border of
heather standing about fifteen inches high.
A nest which was shown to me on another
moor, also in the vicinity of the Solway
Firth, in 1889, contained two addled eggs
and one owlet on May nth. The nest so-'
called was in fact a mere scratching in the
groimd, measuring in breadth about twenty
inches, and surrounded by dwarf willows and
tall heather. It contained only the remains
of a sky-lark, but the remains of two tiny
rabbits were near. I had the melancholy
satisfaction of adding to the Carlisle Museum
several owlets of different sizes which had
been killed with their mother on another
moor near the Solway Firth in June of the
same year (1889).
103. Tawny Owl, Syrnium aluco (Linn.).
Locally, Brown Owl, Wood-Owl, Jenny
Owlet.
A common resident in the larger wood-
lands, especially in the south and centre of
the county. It is easily tamed if taken
young, and becomes an entertaining pet.
Two nestlings from different broods came
into my possession in May, 1891, while still
covered with down. They were never
caged, but enjoyed the run of a large garden
in which they could forage for their own
food. One disappeared ; but on a search
being instituted, the lost bird was discovered
to have taken up his quarters in a hole in the
kitchen, from which he issued only to wage
war on the ' black-beetles,' until their extinc-
tion forced him to return to an outdoor life.
Even then he lived largely on cockroaches,
though house-mice also bulked largely in his
dietary. In fine weather this bird and his
companion slept during the day in a bushy
hawthorn tree ; but in wet weather they
sought shelter under a roof. Their friendship
remained intact until one of them was found
drowned in the water-butt.
104. Tengmalm's Owl. Nyctala tengmalmi
(Gmelin).
A rare visitant. This small owl has only
once been procured in the county. On
November 3rd, 1876, a female Tengmalm's
owl was shot while perching in a fir tree in
the Newton Manor coverts near Gosforth, by
James Wright, the keeper on the property.
105. Little Owl. Athene noctua (Scopoli).
A rare visitant. Westward is the only
parish in the county in which the little owl
has been captured. The occurrence was
notified to Mr. T. C. Heysham, who ac-
cepted the identification of Dr. Bell. Mr.
Heysham's letter to Dr. Bell thanking him
for a notice of the bird (which was probably
sent in the flesh to Cockermouth for preserv-
ation since we know that Dr. Bell saw the
bird before it was skinned) is dated February
1 6th, 1856, and the bird had only recently
been obtained.
106. Scops-Owl. 5f«/>j ^'« (Scopoli).
A rare visitant. In June, 1887, I had
the satisfaction of examining our only county
specimen, which forms part of the collection
of Mr. J. Whitaker of Rainworth. The
bird made its appearance in the middle of the
fell-side village of Renwick, on May 15th,
1875. Old Mrs. Dryden was fortunate
enough to spy the bird as it perched towards
evening in an ash tree. One of the sons,
now deceased, ran out with his gun to shoot
the owl, which took a short flight, but re-
turned to the tree from which it had been
disturbed and was promptly shot.
107. Marsh - Harrier. Circus aruginosus
(Linn.).
Locally, Moor Buzzard (ph.).
Formerly a common breeding bird upon
the moors and wastes of this county, especi-
ally in the north ; but the marsh-harrier has
long ranked as one of our rarest visitors.
Whether it was ever common among our
hills we do not know, but we have Dr. Hey-
sham's authority for believing that this bird
was ' very frequent on our moors ' a century
ago. It had become rare, in all probability,
by 1 830 ; the younger Heysham was evi-
dently much gratified by receiving two im-
mature birds that had been trapped for him
near Alston, where they were then ' not often
met with.' Yet this species continued to
frequent Spadeam Waste and other wild tracts
of country for some years longer. The late
Mr. Proud recorded the capture of two
marsh-harriers near Brampton prior to 1 846 ;
the late Captain Johnson, a friend of Yarrell,
told me that he was quite familiar with the
marsh-harrier as a resident in the same district.
A specimen was killed near Netherby prior to
1880.
108. Hen- Harrier. Circus cyaneus (Linn.).
Locally, Glede, Ringtail (pbs.).
A rare visitant, occasionally seen quartering
the moors in winter, but too persecuted to
192
BIRDS
have much chance of re-establishing itself.
Dr. Heysham had a very extensive experi-
ence of this harrier ; in his day it was rela-
tively a common bird, especially on the
unreclaimed commons and mosses between
Carlisle and the Solway Firth. The younger
Heysham was told by Mr. Hodgson that the
hen-harrier had nested and had been plentiful
in the neighbourhood of Corney at the be-
ginning of the century, but by 1844 the
species had become rare. Mr. T. C. Hey-
sham received a pair of harriers and a single
egg from the neighbourhood of Alston in
1831 ; but he wrote to Doubleday in 1831,
that he fovmd that hawks were ' getting
scarcer every year.' The only pair of hen-
harriers that ever entered my possession,
locally, used to visit the mosses between Car-
durnock and Burgh every winter, preying on
red grouse and other birds. They always
disappeared when spring returned. At last,
in January, 1886, James Smith killed them
for his own collection. Subsequently he was
persuaded to sell them to me for the Carlisle
Museum. Another blue hen-harrier haunted
the same district from December, 1888, to
the end of the winter, and would have been
killed, but I begged Smith to leave it in peace.
A female bird was trapped in Westward
parish in January, 1892.
109. Montagu's Harrier. Circus cineraceus
(Montagu).
A rare visitant. The late J. B. Hodg-
kinson loved to talk of the specimen which
he procured near Carlisle before 1840 ; it
must have been killed in the breeding season,
for it had been feeding, as he assured me, on
the eggs of other birds. Many years later
another, an adult male, was killed near Eden-
hall. On November 2nd, 1892, an imma-
ture bird was shot by a keeper near Kirklinton,
and taken in the flesh to Mr. R. Raine.
no. Buzzard. Buteo vulgaris, L,ea.ch.
Locally, Glead, Shreak.
The buzzard is resident in our wilder dales
through the year, though the number of home
birds appear to be swelled in some winters by
fresh arrivals. It has many favourite resorts
among our hills, but its numbers are sadly
thinned by trapping. Individual pairs often
settle in some of our great woods for the
winter. These birds if unmolested would
probably revert to the primitive custom of
nesting on the limbs of forest trees. The
famous oaks of Inglewood Forest must have
held many a buzzards' nest in earlier days.
Even now the buzzard often deserts the dizzy
precipices which chiefly afford it breeding
ledges, in order to rear its brood in some
highly accessible spot. It is a pity that the
buzzard should ever be trapped. It feeds
almost entirely on field voles, moles, young
rabbits, etc., together with carrion.
111. Rough-legged Buzzard. Buteo lagopus
(Gmelin),
A rare winter visitant. Although many
buzzards are unfortunately trapped among the
hills every winter, the birds thus obtained are
almost invariably common buzzards. In fact
no specimen of the rough-legged buzzard has
been procured in the county since 1879, when
a fine bird was trapped at Barron Wood.
But specimens have been obtained at long
intervals in different parts of the county, near
Silloth in the north, at Bewcastle and Alston
in the east, at Lamplugh in the west ; and
even as near to Carlisle as Wreay Woods.
112. Golden Eagle. Aquila chrysa'itus (Linn.).
A very rare visitant. No eagle of any spe-
cies is known to have been killed in the county
during the last sixty years, but eagles have
been seen on different occasions by competent
persons. For example, the late Mr. J. Hewet-
son Brown often related to me how he hap-
pened to ascend Melbreak one day with a
party o'f friends in the summer of i868. He
outstripped his companions, and on gaining
the top of the hill a little in advance of them
was astonished to find himself quite close to a
fine eagle which was so intent upon feeding
upon a dead sheep that it had not noticed his
approach. When thus surprised, it slowly
prepared to fly, and rising on the wing crossed
over to Grassmoor on the opposite side of
Crummock Water. Again, in July, 1872,
that excellent observer Mr. R. Mann saw an
eagle near Crookhurst. When first noticed
the bird was almost within gunshot ; but it
rose in wide sweeps to a great height, and
finally sailed off in a northerly direction.
Mr. Mann noticed that the tail of this eagle
was not white, but barred, and believed it
to be a golden eagle. In the spring of 1775,
an eagle, said by tradition to be a golden
eagle, was shot in King Meadow, Carlisle,
by Mr. Foster, the landlord of the Wheat
Sheaf Inn, in consequence of the raids which
it had made upon lambs. This bird was
stuffed with its wings extended, and hung
suspended from the ceiling of the kitchen at
the inn for many years. The eagles which
formerly nested among our hills were princi-
pally sea-eagles ; but we can hardly reject the
deliberate assurance of Richardson, that some
of the eagles which bred in the Lake district
were golden eagles. 'One has this year
193
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
(1793),' he says, 'been caught alive, and is
now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Hutton
of Keswick, which is unquestionably the Falco
chrpa'itus, or golden eagle ' {History of Cum-
berland, vol. i. p. 450). This statement is
corroborated by the author of a tract entitled,
' Observations, chiefly Lithological,' in regard
of an eagle which he found preserved in Hut-
ton's Museum in 1 803 : ' This Falco chrysa'etus
was a very young eagle, which Hutton had
bred ; he said he used to feed it with rats,
cats, etc. The bird killed them immediately,
and then sucked their blood ; this was the
only drink he would ever take.'
113. White-tailed Eagle. Haliaetus albkilla
(Linn.).
Locally, Erne {obs.).
A rare visitant. An immature bird was
winged by a keeper named Gill in the neigh-
bourhood of Alston in the autumn of 1834.
Another was captured upon Black Combe by
a shepherd in 1838. This bird lived for
several years in the possession of the Lewth-
waite family. A third was seen near Alston
in the early part of 1844. The sea-eagle
bred constantly near Keswick until the close
of the eighteenth century, the last years of
which witnessed its final and complete exter-
mination. Eyries in Eskdale, in the vicinity
of Buttermere (on a shelf of rock in the centre
of a great mural precipice between High Crag
and High Stile) and Langdale were occasion-
ally occupied. Eaglets were sent from an
Eskdale nest to Muncaster about 1790 ; a
bird taken from the Buttermere eyry lived and
died at Greystoke Castle. But the stronghold
that was chiefly frequented lay in the preci-
pices of Eagle Crag, a lofty cliff at the head
of the valley of Stonethwaite. This was the
eyry that chiefly tempted the bolder spirits in
Borrowdale to hazard the safety of their limbs
in harrying the yoimg birds. The church-
wardens of Crosthwaite parish paid sixpence
(rarely, a shilling) for young eagles, and a
shilling (rarely, two shillings) for old eagles.
The entries of rewards for eagles in the parish
book commence in 1 7 1 3 ; the detailed ac-
counts terminate in 1762. During this period
of fifty years a good many seasons passed in
which no claim was made upon the wardens
for slaughtered eagles ; but upwards of thirty
eagles were paid for. Of these, ten are stated
to have been old birds and fourteen young
birds ; the age of the eagles for which four
shillings were paid in 1759, has not been re-
corded. Several additional eagles were paid
for in 1763 and 1765, though we lack detailed
particulars ; but, after this date, the shepherds
seem to have found that it was more profit-
able to take the yoimg birds alive and sell
them to strangers, than to kill them as pro-
scribed vermin. The poet Gray records that
a single eaglet and an addled egg were taken
from the Borrowdale nest in 1768. Gilpin
saw a young eaglet, nearly the size of a hen
turkey, which had just been taken from Eagle
Crag in Borrowdale ; this may have been the
identical bird that was sent to Bishop Law
from Borrowdale in 1774. At all events, if it
was not that very bird, it came from the same
eyry. W. Walker and W. Youdall were
among those who robbed the birds in Eagle
Crag about this date ; the latter was possibly
a relative of John Youdall, the carpenter, who
killed a yoimg eagle in 1763. The birds
nested about 1784, in Wything's Crag ; other
eyries were occasionally resorted to for single
seasons.
114. Goshawk, jistur palumbarius {Li'mn.),
A very rare visitant. An immature bird
was shot near Edenhall while striking at a
wood-pigeon. It was mounted by Mr. T.
Hope, then residing at Penrith. The late
Mr. Tandy, of Penrith, informed me that he
saw a goshawk on Penrith Beacon, and cer-
tainly described the bird very accurately. In
olden days the goshawk sometimes nested in
the county. There was an eyry of goshawks
in ' Thomas's Wood in Bastonswayt.'
115. Sparrow-Hawk. j4ccipiter nisus {L,inn.).
A common resident in our woods, especi-
ally in those which are not trapped. Males
in perfect adult dress are much scarcer than
females. The late Mr. Edward Tandy in the
summer of 1888 found a sparrow-hawk nest-
ing in a rabbit-hole ; he took the eggs. A
pretty pale cinnamon variety of this hawk was
procured near Drumburgh by James Smith.
It is now preserved in the Carlisle Museum.
116. Kite. Milvus ictinuSy iavigny.
Locally, Glede {06s.).
A rare visitant. The last kite actually
killed in the county was shot near Carlisle on
November 13th, 1856. But others have been
seen, though not obtained, in more recent
years. A kite was observed near Lorton in
1873, and two kites were seen by the Rev.
H. H. Slater in Patterdale, in the autumn of
1880, another was seen near Renwick in
1 88 1. To my own profound astonishment,
I had an excellent view of a kite which passed
over Carlisle on September nth, 1891. Ear-
lier in the year, I had studied kites on the
wing for days together, and my recollection
of their appearance was particularly fresh.
Earlier in the century, a few kites nested at
94
BIRDS
Castle Head near Keswick, at Priest's Crag,
at Birch Crag, and at Armathwaite.
117. Honey-Buzzard. Pernis apivorus {Linn.).
A rare visitant. An immature bird was
shot at Raughton Head in October, 1832;
another near Penrith in the autumn of 1851 ;
another at Scratmere Scaur ; a fourth near St,
Bees in 1863 ; a fifth was killed near Wigton,
and taken in the flesh to my old crony the
late Sam Watson, who told me that it had
been feeding on wasp grubs. All these were
autumn captures; but in 1857 a female was
killed near Alston in the month of June.
This latter circumstance recalls the feet that
Dr. Heysham was informed that the honey-
buzzard nested at Lowther, whence he re-
ceived a female shot in June, 1782. Mr.
James Wilson informed Macgillivray about
1835, that in his earlier days he had seen at
least three honey-buzzards which had been
killed by the Lowther keepers and were pre-
served at Penrith.
118. Iceland Falcon. Falco islandus, Gmelin.
A very rare visitant. A female of this gyr
falcon was shot near Crossfell on October 1 3th,
1 860. It was received in the flesh by Blackett
Greenwell, from whom many years later I
received the sternum and some loose feathers.
119. Peregrine Falcon. Falco peregrinus,
Tunstall.
A very scarce resident, though I have seen
some lovely eggs of this bird which had been
taken among our hills. But the bird itself is
not excessively rare. On the contrary, it is
often to be seen by any one who can identify
a high-flying hawk in the distance, especially
in the neighbourhood of the coast. The
female feeds partly on grouse, but the male
preys chiefly on smaller birds, such as knots,
golden . and green plover, and wood-pigeons.
I have had the pleasure of witnessing several
pretty flights of wild falcons, occasionally at
imexpectedly close quarters.
1 20. Hobby. Falco subbuteo, Linn.
A rare summer visitant. A pair of hobbies
once nested on Penrith Beacon ; both birds
were killed at the nest, and the eggs were
taken by T. Hope. An immature bird was
shot in the same neighbourhood, though just
outside the coimty border, on August 25th,
1899. Others have been killed in Borrow-
dale, at Castle Rigg and Edenhall.
121. Merlin. Falco asalon, Tunstall.
Locally, Blue Hawk.
A scarce resident, especially among the Lake
hills, but on the decrease even on the eastern
fells. Breeding birds return to their favourite
breeding grounds early in the year ; generally
in the month of March if the weather be
bright and open, in which case the birds may
be observed toying together in the air. The
female scratches a slight hollow in the ground
early in May, and soon begins to lay. Incu-
bation is usually commenced by the middle of
May, and the young hatch in the following
month. Four is the largest number of eggs
that I have ever found in a clutch ; there is,
commonly, an addled egg in the nest.
122. Kestrel. Falco tinnunculus, Linn.
Locally, Red Hawk.
A common resident, often seen hovering
with widely extended wings and tail spread
out in fan-fashion, carefully steadying itself
with head to windward, as it watches the
movements of a field-mouse with many a
quick turn of its head, ready to drop with foot
drawn out in act to strike should fortune sug-
gest a favourable attack ; but it often rises
from the ground with empty talons, its swift
swoop having been successfully evaded. Dr.
F. D. Power observed a white kestrel on Dent
Hill in July, 1873.
123. Osprey. Pandion haliaStus (Linn.).
A rare visitant on autumn and spring mi-
gration. Greenwell sent word to Mr. T. C.
Heysham of a female osprey which he received
in the flesh in 184 1. It was shot about four-
teen miles from Alston in the month of No-
vember. Other ospreys were killed at Nether-
by in the spring of 1837 ; at Barron Wood
in September, 1869; at Gosforth in 1881 ;
at Clifton on September 27th, 1890. The
late Mr. J. W. Harris presented to the Car-
lisle Museum an osprey which had been killed
on the Derwent. The Barron Wood bird
was caught in a pole-trap, and recorded in the
local papers as a ' brown eagle.' Whin's Pond
at Edenhall has received the attention of os-
preys on several occasions ; a fine female was
shot there in the summer of 1848. The
estuary of the Eden at Rocklifie has also some
attraction for this species.
124. Cormorant. Phalacrocorax carho (Linn.).
Locally, Water-Crow, Black Diver.
A frequent visitor to several of our larger
lakes, abundant also on our estuaries during
nearly every month of the year. I have seen
birds of the present species returning at a great
height from fishing inland. It is interesting
to notice how they circle roxmd in slowly
descending curves, imtil at last they reach the
sea level, and alight in the tideway.
195
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
125. Shag or Green Cormorant. Phalacro-
corax graculus (Linn.).
A scarce bird in the waters of this county,
as it was a hundred years ago according to Dr.
Heysham. I have seen it on the Solway
Firth, and single birds have been taken on our
rivers. An immature shag was caught on the
Caldew on October and, 1856.
126. Gannet or Solan Goose. Sula bassana
(Linn.).
A spring and summer visitant, often to be
seen fishing in our territorial waters, occasion-
ally venturing up the shallow waters of our
estuaries. An adult was seen at Silloth in
January, 1894, but we do not as a rule meet
with the present species in winter.
127. Common Heron. Ardea cinerea, Linn.
Locally, Heronsue, Willie Fisher, Nannie.
A common resident, resorting to the estuary
marshes and occasionally to our open coast in
winter, at other times haunting our streams
and rivers as well as marshy meadows. There
are fine breeding colonies at Edenhall and
Wythop ; others nest at Crofton, Muncaster,
Greystoke, Netherby, as also on the Gelt ;
but the smaller colonies are often interfered
with, and changes occur from time to time.
128. Purple Heron. Ardea purpurea, Linn.
A rare visitant. A single specimen was
shot near Alston twenty years or so prior to
1870, in which year its history was reported
to the late Mr. John Gould. It was added
to the Edenhall collection.
129. Squacco Heron. Ardea ralloides, ScopoM.
A rare visitant. A specimen was shot out
of a tree near the village of Kirkoswald in
July, 1 845. It was shot by a Lazonby farmer.
He appears to have sent it to the late Sir
George Musgrave, for whom it was probably
mounted by Philip Turner of Penrith.
130. Night-Heron, Nycticorax griseus (Linn.).
A rare visitant to the north of England,
but one that seems to have strayed into this
county on four occasions. Mr. T. C. Hey-
sham knew of a yoimg bird that was shot on
the Petteril, near the village of Carleton, in
October or November, 1847. It is believed
that an adult bird was shot at Beckfoot, near
Brampton, about 1850. Another specimen,
which I have often seen, was killed in the
Abbey Holme about 1 866. A fourth example,
in the plumage of the first year, was shot by
Thomas Davidson of Cargo, in a field ad-
joining his garden, October 21st, 1900.
131. Little Bittern. Ardetta minuta (Linn.).
A rare visitant. About 1845 a specimen
in female plumage was caught close to the
Petteril near Carlisle in the month of July.
It was sent to the late Mr. John Hancock of
Newcastle, and is preserved in his collection.
132. Bittern. Botauris stellaris (Linn.).
Locally, Miredrum, Bitter-drum, Bitter {oh.).
Formerly resident on many of our bogs,
the bittern has long ceased to startle country
folk with its spring ' booming,' though the
local names are still current, with the excep-
tion of ' bitter,' which is only known to us
from the Howard Household Book. Many wild-
fowl were supplied from local sources to the
table of Lord William Howard at Naworth
Castle. Thus in 161 8 two bitterns were
purchased for the castle kitchen in the first
week of August ; the same thing happened
in 1634, a bittern being bought in for six-
pence, the price also of a wild duck. The
fact that these birds were eaten at the very
beginning of August renders it fair to suppose
that the birds had been bred or had nested in
the neighbourhood. Even in the later years
of the . eighteenth century the bittern was
believed to breed on low-lying lands beside
the Eamont in the south of the county. It
is highly probable that the headquarters of the
bitterns that once nested in the county should
be looked for in the neighbourhood of the
coast and its estuaries. Kelswick Mire, near
Abbey, was once the bittern's home. The
traditions preserved in the Timperon family
show that a pair or two of bitterns nested in
this morass annually. The young lads used
to wade out into the reed beds on summer after-
noons and capture the young of the 'miredrum,'
which made good sport for their young tor-
mentors by throwing up the frogs or 'pad-
docks ' which formed part of their diet. The
boys had an unpleasant habit of spurting water
into the mouths of the young bitterns with this
result. The family were of course intimately
acquainted with the love-note of the bittern,
since their house was on the edge of the Mire.
William Timperon's father was born there
about 1780, and the Mire was drained in
1820. Cardew Mire was another famous
haunt of this retiring bird. It is to be regretted
that such individuals of this marsh-lover as
visit the county in winter seldom escape
scathless. Five specimens have been killed in
the county in the last decade, including three
killed at Weddholm Flow, Cumwhitton and
Penrith in January, 1 892 ; a fourth was shot
near Little Bampton in November, 1 893, and
a fifth near Cumwhitton in January, 1 900.
196
BIRDS
The Little Bampton bird was brought to me
in a fresh state by Adam Linton, who des-
cribed with great gusto how he saw the
strange bird running in the bottom of a beck,
and how quickly it crouched behind a bush
when it perceived his presence.
133. Spoonbill. Platalea leucorodia, Linn.
A rare visitant. A single bird of the pre-
sent species frequented the shores of the
Sol way Firth in the winter of 1840-41. It
was closely and carefully identified through a
glass by James Irwin, who watched it fishing
in some shallow water near Bowness. Two
spoonbills made their appearance in the county
in 1859, having probably travelled in com-
pany. Of these, one was shot in Scaleby
meadows in November by George Bowman,
who took it in the flesh to Sam Watson.
The other was shot a few days later near
Irthington, and stuffed by William Graham.
In the west of the county an immature bird
was killed on October 22nd, 1864, by John
Parker, of the Tarn near Bootle. This bird
was added to the museum of the late Mr.
Wallace of Distington, and there remained
until his entire collections went to the hammer
in August, 1899. It was then that I pur-
chased this example for the Carlisle Museum.
134. Grey Lag-Goose, jinser cinereus, Meyer.
A rare winter visitant, generally met with
in the neighbourhood of the salt marshes.
The finest local specimen known to me was
shot by the late Alfred Smith upon Rockliffe
Marsh, December 12th, 1890. I weighed it
next day, and it scaled 8 lb. The bill was
orange yellow and the legs were flesh-coloured.
On December 22nd, 1899, two immature
birds of the present species were killed near
Skinburness by W, Nicol. These immature
examples had bills of a pinky flesh colour, and
orange legs with white claws. I examined
them in the flesh with L. E. Hope. The
late Mr. Edward Tandy presented me with a
good grey lag, which had been shot in a field
near Langwathby on March 29th, 1889.
135. White-fronted Goose. Jnser alhifrons
(Scopoli).
A winter visitant of irregular occurrence,
quite unknown in large flocks within our
limits. The greatest number of white-fronted
geese that have hitherto occurred together in
the county consisted of nine birds of various
ages, which were shot on Skinburness Marsh
on January 6th, 1890. This gaggle flew up
from the sea when the marsh was nearly
covered by a very high tide and alighted so near
to one another on a rather elevated part of the
ground, that all nine were killed by a single
discharge of a punt-gun. Other specimens
have been obtained in the neighbourhood of
the Solway Firth, including two fine adults
shot out of a flock of five near AUonby in
November, 1882; a single bird shot in the
same neighbourhood in November, 1884;
another adult shot on Skinburness Marsh in
January, 1889, when accompanying four
pink-footed geese ; an old bird shot in the
locality last named in December, 1894 ; and
an immature bird shot on another of the
marshes in January, 1898. I handled in the
flesh two old birds which had just been shot
near Plumpton in January, 1891 ; again, in
November, 1898, a mature female was killed
near Greystoke. This last bird seemed to be
a very old one.
136. Bean-Goose. Anser segetum (Gmelin).
A winter visitant to the salt marshes, met
with irregularly in almost every part of the
county. W. Nicol met with a flock of bean-
geese near Silloth which he estimated as
including about sixty birds ; this was in
October, 1898. But small flocks are much
more often in evidence than large ones, and
single birds are not uncommon, despite the
gregarious habits of this genus. With us this
species shows much partiality for stubble fields
and swampy meadows ; but the marsh grasses
are also partaken of with relish, especially
when young and tender. Some wet meadows
upon the Eden above Carlisle are visited by a
few bean-geese in most severe winters. Speci-
mens have been procured on different occa-
sions near Alston, Keswick, Cockermouth,
and as far south in the county as Bootle.
137. Pink-footed Goose. Anser brachyrhyn-
chus, Baillon.
A winter visitant, arriving in some years as
early as the middle of September, but usually
present in large numbers from October to
March, or even April in favourite localities.
Inland it isof irregular occurrence. In January,
1887, two birds of this species were shot out
of a flock of sixty-seven near Brampton, and
sent to Newcastle for preservation. But
though many of the geese which migrate
across the county may belong to this species,
there can be no doubt that it chiefly frequents
our salt marshes, particularly the large salting
known as Rockliffe Marsh. At one time
the bean-goose held the ground, but in the
last decade the marsh has often been eaten
bare at its extremity by the great numbers of
pink-footed geese which browsed upon the
herbage, covering the ground with their
droppings and leaving many feathers behind
them.
197
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
138. Snow-Goose. Chen hyperboreus (Pallas).
This accidental visitant to Europe has been
identified in the county on two occasions.
In 1884 I saw an adult bird on the coast near
Allonby on August 22nd. It was quite alone
and apparently migrating. In January, 1891,
four white geese were seen in a meadow near
Mowbray by a farmer, whose dog put them
up. He saw the birds at close quarters, and
his evidence was independently confirmed.
On the 22nd of the same month four snow-
geese were observed near Carlisle by Mr.
D. L. Thorpe and myself, flying down the
Eden valley.
139. Barnacle-Goose. Bernicla leucopsis (Bech-
stein).
The salt marshes of the Solway Firth are
the constant resort of this well-known winter
visitant, which is only absent from its favourite
feeding-grounds for about five months in the
year. Where precisely its chief breeding-
grounds may lie, we do not know, though the
young in down are affirmed to have been
taken in Greenland and in Spitzbergen. It
returns with comparative regularity to its
winter home in the month of October.
There are years in which the usual advent of
these birds is accelerated, owing perhaps to
early breeding seasons in the far north ; the
geese then arrive, or rather commence to
arrive, in September. Thus, in 1891, be-
tween two and five hundred birds arrived on
Long Newton Marsh on September 28th ; a
couple were shot near Allonby two days later.
In other years I have met with odd individuals
soon after the middle of September. But the
first large flocks arrive, as a rule, between
October 9th and 20th, and are followed later
by reinforcements which unite with those that
have preceded them. The barnacle-goose
does not resort to enclosed meadows or stubble
fields, but occupies well-defined stations on the
salt marshes, shifting from one marsh to another
according to the food supply, but seldom
abandoning a favourite haunt during the
entire winter season unless a spell of excep-
tionally severe weather induces the birds to
journey to some less-exposed coast.
140. Brent Goose. Bernida brenta (Pallas).
Locally, Rotgeese ( = Root Geese) ipbs.).
A winter visitant, of tolerably frequent
occurrence upon the estuaries of the county,
but seldom present in considerable numbers.
A quantity of brent geese appeared on the
Solway Firth during the last week of 1894
and the first week of 1895. Several flocks
alighted in the fields near Allonby, one of
them being estimated to include between
thirty and forty birds. But gaggles of five
or six birds are the rule, and the stay even of
these is rarely prolonged ; their favourite food
is not forthcoming in sufficient abundance,
and the marsh grasses, though greedily par-
taken of in case of necessity, are not palatable
to this goose. Both dark and light-breasted
birds have come under my notice, but the
latter predominate.
141. Whooper Swan. Cygnus musicus, Bech-
stein.
A winter visitant, but of comparative rarity
in the county. I have never handled a fresh
local specimen in seventeen years, though the
head of a cygnet of this species was sent to
me for identification from Crofton, where the
bird had been killed in December, 1895.
But though it has not fallen to my lot to
examine any dead whoopers in this part of
England, I have found great pleasure in the
study of living birds. In February, 1891,
and again in January, 1893, two pairs of
whoopers visited Monkhill Lough, and afforded
me excellent opportunities of observing their
actions in a state of nature. Their time is
chiefly spent in browsing upon aquatic herbage,
their long necks submerged, and the body
resting buoyantly on the surface of the water.
If danger is anticipated, one or more indivi-
duals remain on guard, straightening their
necks and casting anxious glances in the
direction from which harm is anticipated. At
such moments the musical note of ' honi ' is
frequently uttered.
142. Bewick's Swan. Cygnus bewicki^Yarrell.
A winter visitant of comparative rarity, but
few years probably elapse without the presence
of individuals being reported, even if not ob-
tained. A fine adult was killed at Edenhall
in December, 1879 ; a second was killed in
the same locality a little later ; in 1884 a
single bird was observed at Monkhill Lough
on November 23rd ; a herd of twenty visited
Ulleswater and other lakes in the south of
the county in January, 1888 ; and three
were killed on the Solway Firth by Bryson
on Christmas Day, 1888. In the following
January I found that a pair of these swans
had taken up their residence on Monkhill
Lough ; there I visited them on many occa-
sions up to their departure, which took place
late in March. On March 5th of that year,
a herd of twenty-six swans, apparently of this
species, was seen circling over the Ravenglass
estuary. A single bird was independently
noticed on the estuary. On December 4th,
1890, W. Nicol fell in with six Bewick's
swans near Skinburness ; two were shot there
198
BIRDS
soon after. On December 15th, in the same
year, when crossing Burgh Marsh, I observed
a single cygnet sitting on the open marsh. It
rose upon the wing when it saw me, but
after making a flight roimd alighted again on
the ground and began to crop the grass upon
the edge of a wide creek. It was secured by
my friend, Mr. D. L. Thorpe, though only
after a long and diflScult stalk. The only
swans reported to me, apparently, in the
winter of 1893-94 were a bird seen on the
Wampool by Story in October, 1893, and
five examples seen by W. Nicol on January
3rd, 4th and 5th, 1894. In January, 1895,
T. Peal saw a single bird on the Solway
Firth, and this may possibly have been the
bird which James Smith observed in the
neighbourhood of Drumburgh imtil the
middle of April, when it disappeared. It
had, he thought, been wounded by some one
who fired at it on Bigland's Bog, and no
doubt lingered in the neighbourhood until it
had entirely recovered from its injury. Nicol
did not meet with any wild swans in the
winter of 1 895-96 until February 25th, 1 896,
when fourteen Bewick's swans visited Silloth
Bay. He eventually fired at them with his
punt-gun ; they rose from the sandbank on
which they were resting and flew roimd the
bay for upwards of half an hour, after which
they flew oiF in an easterly direction. Nicol
met with one herd of these swans in 1897.
In 1898 he fell in with three Bewick's swans
in the early part of October, and they were
fairly tame ; but a single bird which fre-
quented the same estuary in November that
same year was excessively wild, and always
rose on the wing if it sighted his pimt.
Lastly, six Bewick's swans appeared at Skin-
burness in December, 1899. A cygnet was
shot there on December 21st, and another
cygnet was killed higher up the Solway Firth
by Thomas Peal on December 29th, 1899.
143. Mute Swan. Cygnus a/or (Gmelin).
Mute swans often visit the estuaries of our
coast and exhibit as much wariness in some
cases as any wild birds could do ; but there
is always the probability of their having es-
caped from some ornamental water. The
Corporation of Carlisle keep a good many
swans on the Eden, and others breed at
Talkin Tarn.
144. Polish Swan. Cygnus immutabilisjYariell.
Four specimens of this species, or variety,
appeared on the Wampool in January, 1892.
They were exceedingly wild, and on this
account were pursued with the greater eager-
ness by local punt-gunners, who eventually
secured them all. They weighed from 16 to
20 lb. apiece, the males being the heaviest.
Three others were killed on Derwentwater
in February, 1897.
145. Common Sheld-Duck. Tadorna cornuta
(S. G. Gmelin).
Locally, Shell, Skeldrake, Skellie.
A common resident upon the sandy shores
of all our estuaries, though seldom met with
inland. No species of wildfowl has increased
so remarkably of late years, at any rate on the
coast, as this maritime duck. Its growing
numbers are probably due to the protection
afforded to the breeding birds under recent
legislation. Thirty years ago the sheldrake
was comparatively scarce in the neighbourhood
of Drumburgh, and nested constantly in rabbit
burrows. When James Smith first went to
live there, only two or three pairs of shel-
drakes nested in the locality ; whereas, at the
present time, upwards of thirty pairs nest
within an easy walk of his house, and the
birds disperse themselves freely over the neigh-
bouring mosses. Some of this colony still
nest in rabbit-holes ; but not a few prefer the
cover of thick furze bushes, or the tall heather.
The birds are well aware of the danger to
which open nests are exposed when visible to
the prying eyes of crows or magpies. They
are very careftil to enter cover at some dis-
tance from their eggs, and to run along the
ground for some yards until they reach their
nests.
The males are highly combative in the
pairing season. Many fights ensue before
each pair settles down by common agreement
to its proper location. Then comes the choice
of a nesting site. The early hours are often
spent in searches after suitable quarters. The
female may be seen entering and leaving one
burrow after another, while her champion
mounts guard in the vicinity. After an hour
or so spent in ' ratching about ' and determining
the relative merits of diflFerent positions, the
birds return to sport in the waters of the river
channel, or feed upon the broad extent of sand
exposed by the ebbing tide.
When the pangs of hunger have been ap-
peased by a plentiful capture of the minute
shells, which form the chief food of this bird,
paired birds often fly up and down the coast
for exercise, or retire to some small pool of
fresh water near the coast, in which they
bathe and play together. I have seen as
many as five pairs at once on a little shallow
dub under the shelter of the sand dunes near
Silloth, and even large numbers may be found
consorting (not flocking, however) on more
considerable pieces of water. The immature
199
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
birds do not pair, but live a gregarious life
among their own kind, feeding in the larger
creeks and small runners, and resting upon
the brow of the marshes. Incubation in
mild seasons commences about the middle of
the month of May. I have known nine
fresh eggs to be laid in the nest by May 4th ;
but fresh eggs may also be found in the month
of June, or even later, if the first clutch has
been robbed.
146. Ruddy Sheldrake. Tadorna casarca
(Linn.).
The spring of 1892 will always be remem-
bered by the present generation of ornitholo-
gists as having witnessed a remarkable western
movement of this eastern duck. The irruption
affected Great Britain in a very special sense ;
but the extended wave of migration reached
as far north as Iceland, so that the probability
of the strangers having escaped from cap-
tivity was absolutely negatived. On July
17th, 1892, two birds of the present species
attracted the notice of a farmer at Kirkbride,
by what he described as their ' grunting ' note.
They were then swimming together in the
waters of the Wampool near the village of
Kirkbride ; but being disturbed they rose
upon the wing and flew away like common
sheldrakes, flying high and in a straight line ;
they soon wheeled, however, and circling
round dropped quietly back into the river.
Their arrival was notified to John Biglands,
who searched for them on the following day.
He found them without difBculty, and recog-
nizing that they were strange to him, he shot
one of the two. The bird thus obtained was
in moult, at least it had been changing the
smaller feathers, but the quills were quite per-
fect. Biglands however thought that the bird
was not perfect enough in feather to make a
good cabinet specimen. Accordingly, instead
of sending it to me, as was his first intention,
he allowed his brother to carry it oiF to his
farmhouse. He there identified the bird to
his own satisfaction as a scaup, his only
book of reference being Goldsmith's Animated
Nature. Believing rightly that the scaup was
a common duck, this worthy flung his prize
upon his manure-heap. When I arrived it
had disappeared, and I was assured that a dog
or cat had demolished it, which seemed likely
enough. But I persevered. When the whole
of the reeking dunghill had been turned over,
a final thrust of the pitchfork brought up the
remains of a bird, and sure enough it was a
ruddy sheldrake. It was far advanced in de-
composition, but the wing feathers were intact
and showed that it had never been in confine-
ment. We sorrowfully secured the skull and
sternum, together with a few feathers, and
returned the rotting carcase to the mass of
filth from which it had been disinterred for
our enlightenment. I must add that I spent
many days in searching for the other bird. It
frequented the Wampool for about a fortnight
after the death of its companion. It then
took up its quarters at Crofton Park, where
it was shot by Mr. L. S. Cookson. He
wrote to me that it was a very fine male
in splendid plumage.
147. Mallard or Wild Duck. Anas boscas,
Linn.
Locally, Grey Duck, Mire-Duck.
A common resident, decreasing of late in
most localities as a breeding species, but more
mallard appeared in the neighbourhood of
Abbey Holme, and the Solway Firth gener-
ally, in the severe weather of December,
1889, than had been seen for thirty or forty
years. The large numbers which then ap-
peared were to some extent supplied by the
small birds which come from abroad ; but
may partly be explained by the attention
which duck-breeding is now beginning to
receive from landed proprietors. Three
thousand head of wild ducks are often reared
in a season on the Netherby estate, and
though many of these home-bred birds are
killed on the spot, it is only reasonable to
suppose that others go to swell the bags of
gunners on the marshes.
148. Gadwall. Anas strepera, Linn.
A rare visitant. The handsomest local
specimen that I have seen hitherto was shot
out of a flock of wigeon near Silloth, January
8th, 1892. It was a mature drake in perfect
plumage. A pair of gadwall frequented the
Solway marshes in March, 1886, and the
female was unluckily shot. A single male
was shot at Grinsdale on October 21st, 1884.
I had seen this bird at the point of Burgh
Marsh a few days earlier. Two female gad-
wall were sent to me by Greenwood of Port
Carlisle in October, 1895, with the remark
that he had never seen such ducks before.
The gadwall is even rarer inland than on our
estuaries. An immature male was shot upon
the Lyne on January 3rd, 1885. In Novem-
ber, 1889, I observed a single drake which
frequented Whin's Pond. A drake obtained
on that sheet of water is preserved at Edenhall.
149. Shoveler. Spatula dypeata (Linn.).
Locally, Spoonbill.
A summer visitant, but in very sparing
numbers. Only two or three pairs are
known to breed in the county and all in
200
BIRDS
close proximity to the Solway Firth. The
first nest of the shoveler taken in the county
was found on a salt marsh in May, 1886.
The eight eggs which it contained were
placed tmder a hen, and six hatched ; one
young bird was feathering well when it met
with an accident. The others died early.
Two of the nestlings are in Tullie House.
The attempt to rear young birds was repeated
in 1887, but unsuccessfully. Two or three
pairs have nested in the same district for the
last fourteen years, but the species is not in-
creasing, possibly because the young are so
far from being shy, that they are generally
shot on the salt marshes in early autumn.
Nine eggs of the shoveler were taken in the
usual locality in June, 1899 ; I placed them
under a hen but they did not hatch, and were
added to the Carlisle Museum. The nest in
1899, as in other years, was merely a hollow
in a tuft of coarse marsh grass and was placed
in an exposed position, where it might have
been trodden under foot by cattle. The
home-bred birds, as already stated, frequent
our marshes for a few weeks after their quills
are strong, and then migrate. Their place
is taken later by birds which appear to be
genuine winter immigrants, which depart in
February, while the breeding birds return to
their favourite haunts in March and April.
150. Pintail. Dafila acuta (Linn.).
A winter visitant, chiefly met with on our
salt marshes. Our wildfowlers meet with
two or three pintail on the marshes nearly
every winter ; but full-dressed birds are rarely
seen before the month of December, and
usually later. Immature birds occur in Octo-
ber and November, but rarely make any pro-
longed stay. They feed indifferently on the
salt marshes and on mosses inland. I have
seen a few immature birds which had been
killed in the Eden valley, but have never my-
self met with the pintail except on the marshes
or at Monkhill Lough.
151. Teal. Nettion crecca (Linn.),
A resident which formerly bred commonly
on the mosses inland and near the coast, but
of recent years has been far less numerous in
the nesting season. The young are very
active little fellows, and are with difficulty
caught, but they are easily reconciled to the
loss of their liberty, as are adults also if judi-
ciously treated. They can seldom be induced
to nest in confinement, though a pair of tame
teal nested successfully on a small pond at
Kirkbride.
152. Garganey. Querquedula circia (Linn.).
A rare spring or summer visitant. In
March, 1895, a farmer shot a fine drake in a
field near Silloth. Two pairs of garganey
were seen near Carlisle in the spring of 1 848,
and three of the four birds were shot. Two
drakes were killed at Tarn Wadling before it
was drained. A male was shot near Carlisle
in 1857, and a pretty drake was shot near
Gilsland in the spring of 1882. On the
iSth of August, 1890, a man named Sharp
shot an old hen garganey near Glasson. The
specimen was secured by George Dawson, I
examined it on the day after it was shot, and
found that it had a very distinct hatching spot
and the quills were much worn. Information
reached me that this bird had been seen with
a brood of young ones ; there certainly was
some reason to suppose that it had nested on
one of the neighbouring mosses, but absolute
proof was lacking.
153. Wigeon. Mareca penelope (LAnn.).
Locally, Lough-Duck, Lough.
A common winter visitant to our estuaries,
abundant at Ravenglass all through the winter
months, but most numerously represented on
the Solway Firth in late winter and early
spring, February being now the month in
which the largest bags are made. During
open weather a few wigeon frequent many
of our inland waters ; indeed they are never
absent from Monkhill and Thurstonfield
loughs from October to March, except during
a spell of severe frost, when they are forced to
abandon their favourite freshwater haunts and
betake themselves to the mud flats of the
coast. Stragglers have been shot in August,
and we expect a small number of birds, in-
cluding both young specimens and old males
in eclipse, to visit us in September. I have
never been able to procure any proof of the
wigeon breeding with us, but it is possible
that a pair or two may occasionally do so.
An adult male spent the summer of 1890 at
Monkhill Lough, and from his unwillingness
to leave the locality, for he was a fine full-
winged drake, it was difficult to resist the in-
ference that he had a mate nesting in the
immediate vicinity,
154. Pochard. Fuligula ferina (Linn.).
A frequent visitant to the English lakes,
chiefly in the autumn and winter months, but
not exclusively so. That it occasionally nests
with us is almost certain. I saw a pair of old
pochards at Monkhill on the I2th of August,
and found a party of immature birds at
Thurstonfield a few days later. In July,
201
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
1894, I found an old male pochard on the
latter lough, and imagined that its mate must
be in the vicinity.
155. Tufted Duck. Fuligula cristata {Leach).
Almost a resident species, yet proof of its
having reared its young in our midst is still to
be obtained. I have know^n male birds to
haunt particular sheets of vi^ater, such as
Whin's Pond and Monkhill Lough, all the
summer through ; these birds regvdarly as-
sumed eclipse plumage and shed their wing
quills. I have likewise seen broods of young
birds in autumn, and believe that this duck
must occasionally breed in the county, as it
certainly does across the border. Our estuaries
are not much to the taste of the tufted
duck.
156. Scaup-Duck. FuUgula marila (Linn.),
Locally, Bluebill.
A common winter visitor to our estuaries,
especially those of the Solway Firth, which
are more or less frequented by scaup from
October to March, at the end of which latter
month the individuals that have wintered on
our coast usually depart. Instances of single
birds or even small parties passing the summer
months with us are well substantiated by my
personal experience. But such exceptions are
noteworthy.
157. Goldeneye. C langula glaucian (hinn.).
A common winter visitant to our lakes and
rivers, generally present from October to
March, sometimes arriving in the first week
of the former month, and rarely delaying its
departure fer into April. It occurs all over
the county, alike on upland tarns and on the
dubs of the mosses near the coast. The
majority of those seen are females, and males
of the year. Adult males in full livery are
very sparingly met with. It usually congre-
gates with us in small flocks ; but in the
severe weather of December, 1890, a flock of
between one and two hundred birds fre-
quented the estuaries of the Esk and Eden.
158. Long-tailed Duck. Harelda glacialis
(Linn.).
A winter visitant to the estuaries of this
county, but in very sparing numbers, large
flocks being locally unknown. In November,
1892, I saw a fine adult male and female
immediately after they had been shot on the
Wampool near Kirkbride. An immature
bird was brought to me in December, 1892.
In 1893, an immature drake was shot on a
dub on Salta Moss in October. None ap-
peared in 1894 ; but in 1895 several females
were shot in the channels of the Wampool
and Waver in October and November. In
January, 1896, a male was sent to me from
RocklifFe Marsh ; and in December, 1897,
a female from the Scottish channel of the
Solway Firth. In November, 1 898, 1 watched
two long-tailed ducks for about an hour, as
they dived and swam in Monkhill Lough.
Although I have so far failed to detect the
presence of this bird with certainty on any of
our larger lakes, the specimen which I met
with at Monkhill in 1884 spent several
weeks on that sheet of water, associating in
flight with the goldeneyes. The Carlisle
Museum contains a single specimen in the
dress peculiar to the breeding season. This
bird is an adult drake, a lame bird, which was
caught on a beck near Renwick, April i8th,
1889.
159. Common Eider Duck. Somateria mollis-
sima (Linn.).
A rare visitant to the west coast. An im-
mature bird was procured near Whitehaven
prior to 1829 ; a pair of eiders were killed on
the Ravenglass estuary in June, 1880 ; a
flock of thirteen eiders was seen near Mary-
port in March, 1886.
160. Common Scoter. CEdemia nigra (hinn.).
Locally, Black Duck.
A winter visitant, seldom noticed inland,
though I have seen flocks of this scoter on
Ulleswater in July, before the birds had shed
their wing quills, for they could fly strongly.
Odd birds sometimes visit our tarns, but the
larger rivers and open waters of the coast are
the chief resort of this seafaring duck during
its stay with us. Its sojourn with us is
limited to the winter months so far as large
numbers are concerned ; but a smaller num-
ber of birds appear to reside with us all
through the year. Old drakes deep in moult,
and unable to fly, were sent to me from
Silloth in the first week of September, 1886,
and from Cargo on Eden in the last week of
August.
161. Velvet Scoter. CEdemia fasca (Linn.).
A winter visitant of comparatively rare
occurrence. Inland, a female was shot on
the Eden near Nunwick, March, 1898 ;
another visited Talkin Tarn in May, 1847,
A beautiful adult male was shot on the Eden
at Cargo in December, i886. Several others
in female or immature dress have been shot in
the neighbourhood of Silloth.
162. Surf -Scoter. CEdemia perspicillata
(Linn.).
An accidental visitant, the only local speci-
men having been shot at Crofton on Novem-
202
BIRDS
ber and, 1856. It was killed by a farm ser-
vant, and entered the collection of Mr. T. C.
Heysham, at whose sale it was purchased by
the late Mr. J. H. Gurney, who had it re-
mounted by Ledbeater. His son, the present
Mr. J. H. Gurney, most kindly exchanged
this bird for an ivory gull which I had purchased
at the sale of the late Sir William Jardine,
Bart. The scoter is therefore preserved in
the Carlisle Museum. It is an adult male in
full plumage.
163. Goosander. Mergus merganser, Linn.
Locally, Gravel-Duck, Dun Diver.
A winter visitant to our larger lakes and
rivers, which it chiefly frequents during the
coldest months of the year. The 29th of
September is the earliest date upon which I
have known this duck to arrive, nor does it
usually delay its departure in spring beyond
the month of March. I have never known
it to occur between May and September.
164. Red-breasted Merganser. Mergus ser-
rator, Linn.
Locally, Saw-bill.
A winter visitant to our tideways, of fairly
common occurrence from October to April in
sandy bays ; but rarely met with inland.
Odd birds postpone their departure in spring
until the middle of May, and a brood of half-
grown young ones appeared with their parents
on the Waver in July, 1890. The only
adult male in eclipse dress that I have ever
seen in this fauna! area was shot (with two
females) on the Solway Firth about October
31st, 1890.
165. Smew. Mergus albellus, Linn. -
A rare winter visitant, the arrival of which
usually synchronises with severe weather in
the Gulf of Bothnia. It is by no means a
lacustrine bird, at least I cannot recall a
single specimen as having been shot on any
of our larger lakes. Immature birds were
shot near Carlisle in January, 1841 and 1848 ;
between which date and 1880 seven speci-
mens of different ages were killed in the
county, most of them on the Eden. A hand-
some drake was shot on the Lyne in Decem-
ber, 1883 ; a bird in female dress was shot
on the Waver on November 13th, 1889,
having been winged when it first arrived on
October 30th, Two old drakes and two
females were shot near Carlisle in January,
1891 ; I saw an immature or female bird at
Monkhill Lough in the following February.
An immature bird was shot, but lost, near
Silloth in January, 1 894 ; a female smew
was shot on the Eden by R. Raine in the
winter 1894-95.
166. Ring-Dove or Wood-Pigeon. Columba
palumbus, Linn.
Locally, Cushat.
A common resident, though the numbers
of our home-bred birds are largely augmented
by arrivals from abroad in early winter. A
beautiful white bird, with yellow irides and
purple-red feet, was brought to me at the
Carlisle Museum by T. Peal, January i6th,
1895. In November, 1887, my friend, Mr.
F. W. Bailey, observed a pretty dove-coloured
variety of the wood-pigeon consorting with a
large number of its own species near Cum-
mersdale.
167. Stock-Dove. Columba asnas, Linn.
Locally, Rock-Dove, Scotch Cushat, French
Cushat, Slue Rock.
A local resident in many situations, chiefly
in old parks and on the wooded banks of
rivers, but nesting likewise among the high
rocks on our fells, and also among the
rabbit-holes of the warrens near the coast.
One nest at least has been found under a
thick whin bush. The present species was
not known to breed in the county during the
first half of the nineteenth century. The late
Tom Duckworth was the first naturalist to
verify its breeding with us, which he accom-
plished in 1 86 1.
168. Rock-Dove. Columba livia, Gmelin.
An occasional visitor,"reputed to breed in
the clifR at Sandwith, and likewise among
the mountains of the Lake district ; it appears
to visit us from the west of Scotland in small
flocks, generally in winter.
169. Turtle-Dove. Turtur communis, Selby.
An occasional spring and autumn visitant
of irregular occurrence. A pair of these doves
nested near Scotby in 1885, and a second pair
bred at Orton in 1889. In the former in-
stance, the old birds had an egg in their nest
on June 2nd. An immature bird was killed
in September, 1897, the season at which
most of our local specimens have been ob-
tained ; but an old bird was killed in a turnip
field near Drumburgh in the summer of
1898. Strange to say, on December 21st
or 22nd, 1894, an adult male was killed
near Penrith, which I examined shortly after.
It was in very good condition, although its
occurrence in the north of England in mid-
winter is remarkable.
170. Pallas's Sand-Grouse. Syrrhaptes para-
doxus (Pallas).
A rare visitant. The year 1863 witnessed
a remarkable irruption of this sand-grouse into
203
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
western Europe, and many individuals reached
the British Isles in their wanderings. Three
were procured in our county, out of a total of
four birds that were identified. A female
was shot in April by Mr. Jackson of St. Bees,
and entered the collection of Mr. Dawson
Rowley. A female bird was shot near Silloth
by a man named Lightfoot, who has often
told me how he unexpectedly fell in with
the stranger, after it had been unsuccessfully
pursued for several days by other local gunners.
Its companion escaped. The bird obtained
was dissected by the late James Fell (who
died in 1887), and proved to be a female. A
handsome adult male was killed near Penrith
in May or June, and was mounted by T.
Hope. No other specimens were detected
until the year 1888. Small flocks were seen
in that year near Stapleton and Wintershields
in the month of April, unless there was any
mistake as to the date ; certainly two flocks
were seen near Longtown on and even prior
to May 2 1st. A flock of six or seven birds
alighted in some fields near Orton on May
19th, and frequented the locality until May
26th, when three or more were shot and
taken to Mr. George Dawson. The first
birds observed in the neighbourhood of the
Solway Firth came under the notice of my
friend Tom Williamson on May 22nd, near
AUonby. I made my first personal acquaint-
ance with these birds on May 28th, after
which date I had many opportunities of study-
ing their habits, for several flocks remained in
the north of the county until June 1 3th, when
their numbers fell to a very low figure. Prob-
ably most of these birds moved in a westerly
direction, since the species appeared in various
parts of the west of Cumberland in July, in-
cluding Cockermouth, Sandwith, Seascale, but
especially Ravenglass. A flock of twenty-
three birds settled among the sand dunes at
Drigg on July 24th, and remained in the
neighbourhood until October 17th. None
were seen in the vicinity of Penrith, so far as
we could ascertain, until September 13th.
Most of the birds left this county in the
autumn of 1888. But for more precise details,
reference should be made to the account of
the present species furnished in the Fauna of
Lakeland. It remains for me to add that
though I took great trouble to secure the pro-
tection of these interesting birds, and paid
much attention to their habits, I could find no
proof of their nesting with us. I sent to the
Field the ovaries of two females which had
unhappily been killed near Silloth on May
26th and 28th. The editor replied that
' Both the hens would have nested, the one
in the course of a few days, the other in less
than a fortnight.' On November 7th I
weighed five sand-grouse, which yielded the
following results : 10^ oz. i dr. ; lo^ oz. ;
10^ oz; 9I oz. ; 9 J oz. The males were
the heaviest. During their stay with us these
birds fed chiefly in the open fields, devouring
the seeds of spurrey and other weeds as well
as grain ; they retired at frequent intervals to
the shelter of our sand dunes. Their elegancy
of flight combined with the beauty of their
colours to render them very fascinating. They
flew with great rapidity ; when alarmed, they
ran together before rising on the wing.
171. Black Grouse. Tetrao tetrix, Linn.
A resident species, very local in the north
and west of the county, but fairly plentiful in
the east and north-east between Alston and
Brampton, as likewise in the neighbourhood
of Penrith. Many birds are sent into the
Carlisle poulterers during the last days of
August, both adult and young. The greater
number of the young birds are then in nest
feather, showing few if any black feathers ;
but some early nestlings are three parts in-
vested with black feathers by August 2ist,
and nearly as large as old birds.
172. Red Grouse. Lagopus scoticus (Latham).
Locally, Moorcock, Moorfowl, Gorcock (pbs.).
A resident in small numbers on mosses near
the coast, becoming more abundant when the
fells are reached. Some very handsome
varieties occur, especially perhaps in the
neighbourhood of Alston, where many birds
are unhappily netted. A female which
reached me on December 13th, 1899, having
been killed near Alston, has the chin and a
large patch of feathers on the upper breast
pure white (with the exception of one or two
chesnut feathers) ; the flanks are rich ches-
nut, and the breast and abdomen reddish ches-
nut, each feather being broadly tipped with
white ; the chesnut colour extends to the
greater wing coverts ; the upper parts are prettily
spotted with yellowish bufF. An old hen shot
near Bewcastle on October 5th, 1895, has
the usual markings faintly traced on a pale
whitey-cinnamon ground, and white wings.
173. Ptarmigan. Lagopus mutus (Montin).
Pennant stated in 1776 that a few ptarmigan
then inhabited the hills in the neighbourhood
of Keswick. The fact was endorsed later on
by Dr. Heysham, and may be held to be in-
directly corroborated by the circumstance that
the Dumfriesshire and Galloway hills were
the home of ptarmigan at a subsequent period.
As long ago as 1803, the author of a tract
entitled ' Observations chiefly Lithological,'
reported the existence of a local specimen of
204
BIRDS
the ptarmigan in Button's local museum at
Keswick. The late Rev. H. T. Frere saw a
bird in that same collection in 1841, which
was most likely the one seen there in 1 803.
174. Pheasant. Phasianus colchicus, Linn.
The pheasant is mentioned in old docu-
ments as early as 125 1, when the Sheriff of
this county was required to supply forty
pheasants for the use of King Henry III. ;
but it is very doubtful whether the pheasant
was really established as a game-bird in Cum-
berland before the last decade of the eighteenth
century, when birds were introduced into the
west of the county by Lord Muncaster, and
on to the Netherby estate by Sir James
Graham.
175" Partridge. Perdix cinerea, hsitham.
Locally, Patrick.
A common resident in all suitable districts,
and improved in vigour of late years by the
introduction of foreign blood. I have never
met with a really red variety in this county ;
but, as long ago as 1887, I examined speci-
mens of an interesting blue variety, which
is on the increase. In 1899, I examined a
very young nestling, which in its first dress
was assuming the plumage of the blue variety ;
so that it appears to be worn from earliest
youth.
176. Red-legged Partridge. Caeca bis rufa
(Linn.).
Locally, Red-leg.
Another introduced species, but one which
has never become permanently naturalized in
any one part of the county, though we often
hear of odd birds being shot. It was first
procured in our county in 1848.
177. Quail. Coturnix communis, Bonnaterre.
Locally, Wet-me-lip, Wet-me-feet.
A summer visitant, but in the main a
straggler, single males occurring in our mea-
dow lands far more frequently than paired
couples. At the beginning of the century a
good many pairs undoubtedly nested with us ;
but such numbers are netted on their vernal
journey through southern Europe that few are
left to make their way to our northern county.
The only quail's eggs that I have seen in any
local collection were taken by Dr. Gabriel
near Rockliffe. Stray birds have been killed
in Cumberland as late as the last week of
December.
178. Corn-Crake or Land-Rail. Crex pra-
tensis, Bechstein.
Locally, Diket-Hen.
A common summer visitant, formerly shot
on its arrival in spring by those sportsmen (?)
who enticed the bird within shot by repro-
ducing its cry with a wooden comb or rattle.
The majority of the young are hatched before
the hay is cut, but many are killed by the
machines. Some birds nest comparatively
late, perhaps those which have lost their first
eggs. In 1895, a small bird in down was
sent to me from Head's Nook, on August
1 6th. Single individuals have been shot
from time to time in the middle of winter.
A pure white bird was shot near Carlisle in
June, 1863. I added to the Carlisle Museum
a pied specimen obtained near Carlisle in May,
1849.
179. Spotted Crake. Porzana maruetta
(Leach).
A scarce spring and autumn visitant, which
occasionally occurs in summer and winter,
and is known to have nested on two of our
morasses. The only bird that Dr. Heysham
obtained was killed near Carlisle at the be-
ginning of June ; but its skulking habits may
well lead to its being overlooked at that season.
1 80. Little Crake. Por%ana parva (Scopoli).
A very rare visitant. An adult bird was
captured in a ditch near Cockermouth Castle
in 1850. It entered the possession of the
late Mr. J. W. Harris, who allowed Mr.
T. C. Heysham to have a drawing made of it
in 1852, as a local rarity. Many years after-
wards it was presented to the Carlisle Museum,
in which it now rests. It is a fully dressed
adult.
181. Water-Rail. Rallus aquaticus, Linn.
Locally, Water-Crake {obs.),
A winter visitant to suitable situations in all
parts of the county ; often present upon our
runners and beck-sides in severe weather, and
very constant to particular spots in rushy fields.
In a few instances birds have been known to
remain all the summer ; and even to nest with
us. The late Tom Duckworth procured eggs
from Rocklifie Moss ; they have also been
taken near Penrith.
182. Moor-Hen. Gallinula chloropus {Linn.).
A common resident on most of our beck-
sides, but many individuals pass through the
county on migration. In 1894 I received a
specimen which had killed itself by flying
against the lantern of the East Cote Light-
house on the night of April 20th. In June,
1877, a specimen of the so-called 'hairy'
variety was caught near Gosforth and taken
to Dr. Parker. This bird is ' of a light fawn
colour all over, except the usual white mark-
ings.'
205
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
183. Coot. Fulka atra, Linn.
Locally, Lake-Hen {pbs.).
A common resident upon most of our
ponds, and often present on our larger lakes
to the number of a few hundred birds. Many
of the young appear to fall victims to voracious
pike. I have known odd birds to be killed
on the salt marshes after a spell of boisterous
weather.
184. Crane. Grus communis, Bechstein.
In the spring of 1869 a solitary crane ap-
peared in the neighbourhood of Allonby. It
was eagerly pursued by several local gunners.
Messrs. Mann, who then resided at Crock-
hurst, stalked the bird in one of their fields
and fired two shots at it, knocking out some
feathers, which were sent to Mr. J. J. Armis-
tead.
185. Great Bustard. Otis tarda, Linn.
A female was shot in a turnip field at Lees-
hill in the parish of Lanercost on March 8th,
1854. It was stuffed for a local innkeeper,
Joseph Mowbray of Brampton. The late
John Hancock saw the specimen a few days
after it was stuffed, and while it was quite
soft and flexible ; it had weighed 1 1 lb. It
was eventually placed in the Newcastle
Museum.
186. Pratincole. Glareola pratincola, Liinn,
A specimen of this rare visitant was killed
near Bowness-on-Solway in the year 1807.
It has never been met with in the county
during the last ninety-three years, so that the
original record remains unique.
187. Cream - coloured Courser. Cursor ius
gallicus (Gmelin).
A stray specimen appeared at Allonby in
October, 1862. It was shot by Robert
Costin, a native of that village, who killed it
on the top of the beach immediately in front
of the bank known locally as 'The Hill.'
Costin sold the bird to the late Mr. T. H.
Allis of York.
188. Dotterel. Eudromias morinellus (Linn.).
The hills of the Lake district have long
been celebrated as a summer haunt of this
dainty plover. There was a time, undoubtedly,
when many of these birds rested for a few
days upon the slopes of our higher mountains,
as well as upon certain marshes abutting on
the Solway Firth, during their vernal migra-
tion. The month of May has always been
the season at which the dotterel appeared,
though it has occurred in exceptional instances
in April, and even as early as the third week
in March. Formerly the miners on Crossfell,
and in the neighbourhood of Keswick, were
in the habit of ruthlessly shooting these birds
on their arrival, which was eagerly looked for
because the skins fetched about half a crown
apiece for fly-dressing. Such destructive mea-
sures have been limited by legal protection ; yet
the dotterel is much less frequently seen in
the county than was the case thirty or forty
years ago. A herd named Percival, who
lived at Rockliffe, at one time was known as
the ' dotterel,' because he had killed so many
of these birds. Now they are seen only once
in five or six years, where formerly their
arrival could safely be predicted as certain to
occur within a few days. Whether this may
be accounted for by the birds being more
freely persecuted on their way to us than
formerly is a question upon which I cannot
pronounce an opinion. But I do not agree
with those who argue that the dotterel ever
bred numerously in our faunal area.
The evidence at my disposal, which I can-
not in the interest of this species record in
print, satisfies me, as it would probably satisfy
any one who has a good knowledge of the
wildest parts of our mountain ranges, that no
large percentage of the dotterel that visited
our hills ever actually bred with us. That a
limited number of birds have always done so,
particularly in the Lake district proper, is
equally certain, for many clutches of eggs have
been taken since Dr. Heysham saw three eggs
that had been procured upon Skiddaw in the
summer of 1784, one of the parent birds
being killed at the same time. The unob-
trusive habits of the dotterel, when incubation
has commenced, often permit a person to pass
close to its nest without any suspicion of its
nearness being aroused. On the other hand,
the assiduity with which the most favoured
breeding quarters are ransacked by egg-col-
lectors render it difficult for the species to
increase or even to hold its own. But the
young are very rarely shot ; indeed, the
dotterel is never molested except in spring and
summer. The birds that visit us in May
must journey to their winter quarters by some
other route ; at least I have never seen any
immature specimen killed in the county, ex-
cept two birds from Crossfell preserved in the
Newcastle Museum. I have observed the
dotterel myself on some few occasions, both
on our marshes and on the hills, but only in
spring and summer.
189. Ringed Plover. Mgialitis hiaticulafJAnn^
Locally, Sea Bellet, Pellick, Ringed Dotterel.
A common resident upon our sea coast,
nesting in very sparing numbers upon gravel
beds in our larger rivers, such as the Esk and
206
BIRDS
Eden, but well established all round our shores.
On a sunny morning towards the end of
March the male may often be seen pursuing
his coy partner, which at first makes a show
of eluding his pressing attentions by running
in a contrary direction ; but, when hotly pur-
sued, generally rises on the wing and takes a
short flight, closely followed by her ardent
suitor.
190. Golden Plover.
Linn.
Charadrius pluvialis,
A common resident, which constantly de-
lights the visitor in our eastern fells by its
plaintive whistle. It breeds in small numbers
among the mountains of the Lake district
proper, and a very few pairs nest upon suitable
mosses in the vicinity of the Solway Firth.
It is an early breeding bird, and the young
often hatch as early as the middle of May,
though in the Hebrides I have seen them
chipping the shell late in July. But with us
the majority of the young birds are strong on
the wing by the middle of the latter month,
when they often assemble upon the sands of
the Solway Firth in very large numbers. It
is exceedingly interesting to watch the move-
ments of the birds through a good telescope.
One bird may be seen to occupy a position of
rest, its feathers hanging loosely around its
body (instead of being tightly compressed, as
taxidermists suppose) ; a second, with per-
chance a few black feathers yet lingering on
the breast, stretches its wings above the back,
while its next neighbour busies itself in preen-
ing its plumage ; another trips across the
gently undulating sands, now pecking at a tiny
shell, now stopping in its course to shake up
its feathers. A little stream of fresh water
attracts a newcomer ; it plunges into the
creek, ducks its head, scratches the side of its
head with the right foot, stoops to duck again
and again, flaps its wings — displaying for a
moment its white auxiliaries — and then falls
to dressing its dripping feathers, while its mates
send their mellow call-note speeding along the
winding foreshore.
191. Grey Plover. Squatarola helvetica (Linn.).
Locally, Silver Plover.
An autumn and winter visitant, occasionally
obtained in the interior of the county, but
chiefly observed upon the shores and marshes
of the Solway Firth. Immature birds begin
to arrive in August, but are most numerous
during October, a month during which this
bird is fairly constant in frequenting the mus-
sel scaurs exposed by the tide. I have occa-
sionally handled adults in full winter dress,
and on a few occasions have received others
shot in September, which still retained the
nuptial livery in almost perfect condition. I
once purchased an adult with a fine black
breast, which had been killed near Silloth in
May, and have seen birds in full breeding
dress from May to July ; but these last were
always excessively wild and difficult to ap-
proach.
192. Lapwing or Peewit.
Bechstein.
Vanellm vulgaris,
Locally, Green Plover, Teufit, Peesweep.
The peewit is happily one of our most
numerous birds, nesting freely in all suitable
districts of the county, from high fell-side
farms to the salt marshes of the coast. It be-
gins to lay in March, and breeds irregularly
all the summer, so that the number reared
within our limits must be very considerable.
It is almost bewildering to watch the figures
formed by large masses of these birds, and to
see them crossing and re-crossing the field of
a telescope. The precision with which large
numbers of birds suddenly disengage them-
selves from a main party, wheel around, and
again reunite with the first, or travel in a
wedge through the centre of the chief phalanx
which opens to allow them to pass through,
is truly astonishing.
193. Turnstone. Strepsilas interpres (Linn.).
A common autumn and winter visitant to
the coast of Cumberland, In August we meet
with a few individuals which are changing
from the bright plumage of the breeding season
into the more sombre attire of winter ; in fact,
we find that all the various changes of plum-
age can be obtained on the foreshores.
194. Oyster-Catcher.
Linn.
Hamatopus ostralegus.
Locally, Sea-Pyat, Mussel-Pecker, French Pyat.
A very abundant bird at many points of our
coast, especially in the neighbourhood of
Drigg, where many pairs nest, and at Beck-
foot, where himdreds and hundreds assemble
to feed on the mussel beds. We seldom meet
with oyster-catchers inland, except during or
after heavy gales ; but the entire coast from
RockliflFe to the Duddon is enlivened by these
vociferous birds, except of course where docks
or ironworks interfere with natural features.
195. Grey Phalarope. Phalaropus fiilicarius
(Linn.).
This phalarope is quite unknown in the
county in red plumage ; but immature birds
and even adults in winter dress occur with
tolerable frequency during the later months of
the year. An old female in almost perfect
winter feather, but still showing one red
207
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
feather unchanged upon the rump, was shot
on Burgh Marsh, December 24th, 1894. In
1898, after a lapse of four years, during
which I failed to meet with any local speci-
mens, a very small bird, still retaining much
first plumage, was shot on Cardurnock Point,
December 9th; on September 22nd, 1899,
during the prevalence of a north-westerly gale,
an immature and very lovely specimen flew
ashore near Beckfoot and alighted among the
sand dunes which abut upon that part of the
Solway Firth. It died from exhaustion and
is now in Tullie House.
196. Red-necked Phalarope. Phalaropus hy-
per horeus (Linn.).
A rare visitant, never procured to my
knowledge in the interior of this county, and
very rarely seen in the neighbourhood of the
Solway Firth. Single specimens were ob-
served on RockliiFe Marsh and in the neigh-
bourhood of Kirkbride in September, 1879,
and October, 1885, both birds being added to
the Carlisle Museum. I have often visited a
small pond near Allonby on which a full-
dressed bird was shot prior to 1883.
197. Woodcock. Scolopax rusticula, Linn.
A good many woodcock have nested in
Cumberland since 1837, when Mr. T. C.
Heysham first saw eggs of this bird which had
been found in a wood about nine miles from
Carlisle. Dr. Heysham had scouted the idea
some fifty years earlier. There is a charm
about the habits of this retiring and crepus-
cular bird which adds a special zest to the
interest with which we catch the familiar cry
of the flighting woodcock as he crosses the
meadows which lie between two favoured
haunts. Evening after evening the same line
of flight is often repeated, and if the young
have hatched two old birds may be seen instead
of a single one.
The first eggs of the woodcock are laid as
early as March or April (and very delicate
objects they are as they repose in a slight
hollow under cover of a few dead leaves or a
patch of brambles), so that the few birds which
are shot in August are generally as large as
old birds. In 1895 I secured a little wood-
cock which had been shot near Carlisle on or
about August 28th. This nestling was in
moult, having the tail feathers still very im-
perfectly developed, and some of the feathers
of the neck in pen. It is preserved in the
Carlisle Museum.
198. Great Snipe. Gallinago major {Gta.t\\n).
A rare visitant, and one which I have never
met with alive during seventeen years' resi-
dence in the county. It has only occurred in
autumn, generally in October, and as a solitary
straggler, not in wisps like the common bird.
It is a fairly heavy bird for its size. The late
Mr. L. F. B. Dykes shot one on Wardhall
Common on September nth, 1883, which
weighed 9^ ounces. Examples have been
killed near Carlisle, Bewcastle, Workington,
Keswick, etc., but it is always considered rare.
199. Common Snipe. Gallinago ccelestis {Fxen-
zel).
Locally, Hammer- Bleat, Heather- Bleat, Sceape,
Full-6nipe.
Drainage and multiplication of cheap guns
have done much to reduce the number of
snipe that breed upon our mosses and rushy
meadows. No specimen of the black variety,
which bears Sabine's name, has been procured
locally, but cream-coloured birds have been
found at different times. A bird of this de-
scription was shot near Stapleton, November
7th, 1888, and may be seen in Tullie House.
200. Jack Snipe. Gallinago gallinula (Linn.).
Locally, Half-Snipe, Laal, Jacky, Judcock {pbs^.
A winter visitant, arriving late in Septem-
ber, and rarely delaying its departure after
March and April, though odd birds have
passed the summer in one or other part of the
county. I frequently met with a jack snipe
in July, 1899, and at first wondered if it could
be a breeding bird, but it proved to be only a
cripple which had been hindered from depart-
ure by an injured limb. It frequented a beck
near Allonby.
201. Pectoral Sandpiper. Tringa maculata,
Vieillot.
This American bird straggled to Cumber-
land in the autumn of 1888, when an imma-
ture specimen was shot near Edenhall by R.
Raine, now of Carlisle. It was on October
1 8th that he fell in with it ; it was not alone
but accompanied by one if not two other in-
dividuals of the same species. He first ob-
served two of the birds running like dotterel
over the surface of a grassy meadow ; but on
being disturbed they betook themselves to a
neighbouring pool of water. Raine shot, as
he believed, two birds, but only secured one ;
the other fell into the water, and not being
aware of the value of his prize, he went home
with a single bird. The late Mr. Edward
Tandy saw this bird the same evening, but
supposed it was a wood sandpiper. He skinned
it himself, and showed me the fresh skin be-
fore the legs had dried at all. Subsequently
he generously gave me this skin for the Car-
lisle Museum.
208
BIRDS
202. Dunlin. Tringa alpina, Linn.
Locally, Plover's Page, Plover-Provider, Sea-
Mouse.
A resident throughout the year, the num-
bers of those which breed with us being enor-
mously augmented by fresh arrivals in early
autumn, though where precisely these immi-
grants come from has not been ascertained.
There are two breeding areas of this wader in
the county, the one being furnished by the
salt marshes and mosses of the Solway Firth,
while the other coincides with the wild moors
in the neighbourhood of Crossfell. On our
eastern fells I have often fallen in with dun-
lins, which were either alone or consorting
with golden plover, to which habit they are
curiously prone in the breeding season, and
from which two of their local names are de-
rived.
203. Little Stint. Tringa minuta, Leisler.
A rare autumn visitant, hitherto only ob-
tained in the neighbourhood of the Solway
Firth, and unknown inland. A few immature
examples of this tiny wader generally visit the
sandy shores of the Solway Firth about the
first week of September, sometimes even ear-
lier ; but certain seasons pass without any in-
dividuals being detected. Thus small nvimbers
were procured in 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890,
1891, 1892, 1893; but I do not know of
any being seen in 1894. Only two were
killed in September, 1895, and only a single
bird in 1896. I have no entry of little stints
in 1897 ; but the birds which arrived in Sep-
tember, 1898, delayed their departure into
October, the last being killed on the 22nd of
that month. In 1889 a bird was killed on
RockliiFe Marsh on November 2nd, our latest
date for specimens actually killed ; but W.
Nicol saw a single bird near Skinburness on
January 15 th, 1891. The only bird reported
to us in 1889 was shot at Allonby on Septem-
ber 9th, by my servant, W. Nicol, jim. The
late James Cooper once obtained a little stint
on. June ist, the only known instance of its
occurring on the vernal migration.
204. Temminck's Stint. Tringa temmincki,
Leisler.
A very rare visitant. The late James
Cooper killed two immature birds on RocklifFe
Marsh, on September ist, 1832 ; a third in
the same locality on September 5th, 1832;
and a fourth on September 2nd, 1839. I
searched the creeks of Rockliffe Marsh, myself,
for many years, but never detected the pre-
sence of this sandpiper.
205. Curlew-Sandpiper. Tringa subarquata
(Guldenstadt).
An autumn visitant to the estuaries of the
Solway Firth, generally arriving in September,
but occasionally in August. The birds met
with at this season are the young of the year.
The only adult that I have known to be
secured in autumn was an old female, shot
near Skinburness, September 2nd, 1899.
This bird was in moult, but still retained a
considerable amount of red plumage. It is
preserved in the Carlisle Museum. James
Cooper shot two curlew-sandpipers on Rock-
lifFe Marsh, in red dress, May 24th and 27th,
1833 ; he also saw a small flock in May,
1838.
206. Purple Sandpiper. Tringa striata, Linn.
A winter visitant to our coast in very spar-
ing numbers. The only bird that is known
to me as having been procured locally in first
dress was shot near St. Bees. This species
occurs in most autumns in small parties and
singly, but never in flocks of any magnitude.
207. Knot. Tringa canutus, Linn.
Locally, Grey Knot.
A winter visitant, often present on the fore-
shores of the Solway Firth in immense flocks
which perform the most marvellous aerial
evolutions, rising and falling in the air and
sweeping up and down the estuaries with
perfect precision of action. Sometimes they
rise to such a height that they become mere
specks to the human vision ; at others they
scarcely top the surface of the flowing tide.
Upon their first arrival in August they are
often very wild ; on the other hand, I have
met with small parties in winter which were
so tame that they would hardly trouble to
rise from the beach on my approach. Per-
haps the most interesting time to watch knots
arrives when the return of the tide unites all
the scattered flocks that have been feeding on
the scaurs into great masses of birds that
cluster together like bees, and after many
wide sweeping movements, during which
they dance over the waves in wild delight,
now disappearing into the trough of the long
rollers, only to rise at the next moment to
the height of a hundred feet, turning their
white breasts upwards to catch a ray of
winter sunshine, and then reversing to display
the contrast of their russet upper parts, finally
alight upon some sea-washed prominence, such
as Cardurnock Point, there to wait impatiently
in one dense crowd, until the tide begins to
turn, and they can once more fly down to
209
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
their oozy feeding grounds to banquet upon
the tiny shell-fish upon which they largely
subsist.
208. Sanderling. Calidris arenaria (Linn.).
This arctic bird is to be found on the
shores of Cumberland from August to the
middle of June, but it only occurs inland on
migration. The numbers which visit us in
autumn are small, composed of young birds
in first dress and adults exchanging summer
for winter dress, which they commence to do
in August. We seldom meet with any large
flocks before the arrival of winter, and those
that winter with us are very irregular in their
movements. It is during May and June that
we expect to see hundreds, and even thou-
sands, of sanderlings resting upon our exten-
sive sands before continuing their journey to
some great imknown land ; for where the
multitudes of sanderlings and knots that pass
through our area at one time or another can
possibly breed, is a mystery that has not been
solved by any of the polar expeditions.
209. Ruff ( ? Reeve). Machetes pugnax
(Linn.).
An autumn visitant, occasionally noticed
when migrating across our moors (for birds
have been killed by sportsmen on several
occasions, as was the case in the autumn of
1899, when a reeve was shot near Cocker-
mouth), but principally observed upon our
salt marshes. The autumn of 1896 was a
particularly good season for ruffs, many of
which frequented our marshes throughout
September. The ruff very seldom winters
in England ; but in the last week of January,
1895, a single male bird was shot at Skinbur-
ness by W. Nicol. I have never seen the
ruff in spring, but the late James Cooper sent
to Mr. C. M. Adamson a clutch of eggs of
this species which had been taken in the
vicinity of the Solway Firth.
210. Buff- Breasted Sandpiper. Tringites
rufescens (Vieillot).
A straggler of this species was shot on
Burgh Marsh in September, 1876. It was
killed by John Dawson, and given to his
brother, George Dawson, the local entomo-
logist. In 1892 that veteran wildfowler,
W. Nicol, who has had a very exceptional
experience of our waders, saw on Skinburness
Marsh on September 17th, a bird entirely
strange to him, but from what he gathered
from Saunders' Manual he had no doubt it
was a buff-breasted sandpiper. ' It passed me
on the marsh scaur in company with two
curlew sandpipers, and alighted about 150
yards from where I was, but rose before I got
near and went off towards the creek with a
redshank. It was not unlike a reeve, but a
bit less in size.' The words just quoted are
extracted from the report which he sent to
me the same day. He did not succeed in
obtaining the bird.
2 n . Common Sandpiper. Totanus hypoleucus
(Linn.).
Locally, Sand-Lark, Willie Wicket, Willie
Liltie, Dick-a-dee.
A summer visitant to the shores of our
lakes and larger rivers, arriving in April, and
rapidly distributing its numbers in pairs along
the sides of ■ our upland streams, which owe
much of their charm to the presence of this
bird, the dipper and grey wagtail.
212. Wood - Sandpiper. Totanus glareola
(Gmelin).
Five birds of this species visited Whin's
Pond, Edenhall, in August, 1867, and two
were shot. In 1893 a single immature bird
was shot on Skinburness Marsh by W. Nicol.
He sent it to me, but owing to the hot
weather and my absence from home the
bird was spoilt. In 1898 Mr. Backhouse
shot another immature bird in the same
locality on or about August 20th. This
was also sent to me too late for preservation,
a very unfortunate circumstance.
213. Green Sandpiper. Totanus ochropus
(Linn.).
An autumn visitant in small numbers, fre-
quenting our rivers and salt marshes, but
sparingly distributed throughout the county.
Mr. W. Little once obtained a young bird
near Carlisle with so much down upon it
that he thought it must have been bred
locally. Old and young undoubtedly appear
as early as the third week of July. In 1894
a bird was killed near Drawdykes Castle on
April 30th, and this is the only local speci-
men in summer dress that I have handled in
the flesh. The species is rarely seen in
winter, but single birds were killed near
Brampton, January 22nd, 1846; near Car-
dew Lees, January 3rd, 1885 ; and on the
Eden, near Carlisle, December i8th, 1891.
214. Redshank. Totanus calidris (Linn.).
Many redshanks nest upon our salt marshes,
and lesser numbers upon mosses and rough
pasture lands near the coast, while isolated
colonies exist upon our fell lands. It is the
noisiest and most suspicious of all our wild-
fowl, but is also endeared to me by the
recollection of the many pleasant hours that
have been passed in its company, especially
in the breeding season, when I examined nest
210
BIRDS
after nest of its pyriform eggs, or dandled the
pretty little downy young while the old birds
circled round me with deafening lamenta-
tions. It is most abundant in autumn, but
is never wholly absent from our midst.
215. Spotted Redshank. TotanusJuscus{Linn.).
A rare visitant, hitherto only met with in
the vicinity of the Solway Firth. It frequents
the foreshore in the neighbourhood of Skin-
burness in the autumn months, but is not
noticed every year. In the decade of years
between 1888 and 1897 eight individuals
were reported to me ; of these, four were shot
and entered my hands in the flesh. One of
these had been feeding on small fishes. All
were immature birds.
216. Greenshank. Totanus canescens (Gmelin).
A few birds, chiefly young of the year,
visit us every autumn, and haunt our
marshes for a few weeks, uttering their
plaintive whistle as they circle round the
foreshores. Odd birds have wintered and
even passed the summer with us, but of
course the breeding haimts of this wader lie
considerably further north. I have met with
the greenshank inland in a very few instances,
chiefly in the Eden valley.
217. Red-breasted 'Snipe.' Macrorhamphus
griseus (Gmelin).
In the year 1835, an immature example of
this American wader was shot upon Rockliffe
Marsh by James Cooper. The bird was
picking up small beetles upon an elevated
part of the marsh when killed on September
25th. It entered the collection of Mr. T. C.
Heysham.
218. Bar-tailed Godwit. Limosa lapponica
(Linn.).
Locally, Curlew-Knave.
Many hundreds of immature specimens of
this godwit arrive upon the shores of the Sol-
way Firth every autumn, chiefly in September,
when they are often very tame and unsus-
picious. They are delightful birds to study
through a telescope as they scatter over the
sands or feed at the edge of the tideway. In
1898 a flock of from two to three thousand
godwits came flying into Allonby Bay from
the westward on the morning of October 2nd,
and alighted upon the wide expanse of sand
laid bare by the tide ; as the rising waters
rippled inwards the birds rose into the air,
wheeled round and round en masse, and
alighted again a little nearer to the beach
with a perfect whirl of wings ; in a few
seconds I saw hundreds and hundreds closely
massed together, and the telescope revealed
31
every detail of their plumage, while their
shrill cries added to the interest of the busy
scene ; as nearer crept the tide, so nearer and
nearer did the birds edge in towards the
shore ; suddenly they sprang into the air
with a bewildering fanning of myriads of
wings, while their white rumps served as
centres to the greyish upper parts and ren-
dered their appearance the more remarkable.
This time they were up in real earnest, and
directed their course in an easterly direction,
flying in a huge broad bar up the Solway
Firth. But they returned in smaller num-
bers on many another day and probed the
damp sand in front of my windows, often
inserting their long mandibles in the sand
almost up to their very base.
When feeding on sand-worms, godwits are
often followed by brown-headed gulls which
watch their movements very closely, and
endeavour to make them drop their prey.
They continue to delight us with their
graceful actions until wild and boisterous
weather drives the majority of young birds
to winter in more genial regions, but they
are apparently replaced by adults in fiill winter
dress which generally arrive in December.
219. Black-tailed Godwit. Limosa belgica
(Gmelin).
This godwit is one of our rarer visitants, only
procured hitherto on the marsh lands of the
Solway Firth, and that in very small numbers.
About ten immature specimens were killed
by our local wildfowlers between 1884 and
1889 ; in 1893 two others were killed out
of a flock of three by W. Nicol, who fell in
with them on October 13th. He shot two
more birds in August, 1898, one of which
went to R. H. Thompson ; the other was
preserved for the Carlisle Museum, which
possesses all the specimens that have entered
my hands in the flesh. On July 29th, 1890,
Mr. A. Wilson came across two of these birds
on Skinburness Marsh, and shot one of them,
an old bird in red summer livery.
The only specimen procured locally in
midwinter was shot near Bowness-on-Solway,
January ist, 1889.
220. Curlew. Numenius arquata (Linn.).
Locally, Curley, Whaup.
The curlew is a common bird in most
parts of the county. Many individuals are
to be seen scattered along our entire coast
in calm open weather ; but should a heavy
gale assail the shipping, the curlew seeks
shelter on its favourite mosses, or drops into
some sheltered nook among the winding
creeks of the marsh lands.
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
When other fowl are sorely pinched hy
severe weather the curlew contrives to retain
condition, while at all seasons it retains the
same jaunty air of self-sufficiency. The late
Mr. Seebohm fancied that the curlew was a
bird of solemn gait, ' only occasionally run-
ning ' {British Birds; vol. iii. p. 95), but this
is a misapprehension. If a curlew desires to
shift his feeding ground he runs all the way,
and if he chances to be in a bit of a hurry he
runs very fast indeed. One would have
rather expected him to take a short flight, but
this he leaves for gulls to do. The webbed
feet of the Larida are not so well adapted for
rapid progression over a flat surface as the long
toes of the curlew. Moreover, if you watch
the curlew in repose you will see that its body
feathers do not cling closely to the bird as
artists often suggest, but are only packed
together sufficiently closely to supply an
adequate degree of warmth. The long man-
dibles are chiefly utilized for boring and prob-
ing purposes, but they are also serviceable
in enabling the curlew to preen its plumage
with great care. The feathers of the back
and shoulders are first arranged ; the tail is
then bent to one side, and each of the rectrices
is carefully passed through the bill ; the head
is then drawn backwards to enable the bird to
dress the feathers of the breast with the tips
of the mandibles. Having completed its toilet
a curlew shakes itself to get rid of any particles
of sand that may have adhered to its feathers,
and flaps its wings with an air of relief. It
then trips forward to the edge of a little
streamlet of water and plunges its long bill
into the damp sand, bringing up a worm
which is either bolted summarily or dipped
into the water and cleansed before being
allowed to enter its gullet. Delicate as the
hearing of the curlew no doubt must be, and
exquisite as its sense of touch certainly is, it
would be an error to suppose that the curlew
is always successful in securing its prey at the
first stroke. Often you will see the bird
bend forward to listen, and a moment later
the beak descends like a flash into the sand,
only to be withdrawn empty ; the second
stroke may be successful, in which case the
worm is drawn up like a cork out of a bottle,
firmly held between the tips of the mandibles ;
the curlew tosses it into the air, picks it up,
tosses it again, picks it up, carries it to the
water, dips it in the liquid brine, and swallows
it with the air of a connoisseur. But if the
worm is deeply lodged, success is not so easily
obtained ; I have seen a curlew make seven
different strokes into the same hole before he
secured the struggling worm and brought it
safely to the surface. When shifting its
quarters to any considerable distance the cur-
lew generally flies nearly in a straight line and
at a moderate height with slow and steady
strokes of the wing ; but as it draws near to
the point upon which it intends to alight the
beats of its wing become less marked and the
bird almost glides along. When journeying
between its feeding grounds on the coast and
the moors which it frequents at other times,
the curlew occasionally flies at a great elevation.
I have often heard the whistle of this bird
ringing through the air on a clear frosty day,
and have been astonished to find that it pro-
ceeded from a bird that had mounted high
in the heavens. When the season of love
arrives, curlews delight to rise in the air and
sport amorously on the wing together, soaring
round and round at a great height, or flying
to meet their mates, when their bills appar-
ently touch caressingly as they unite and
separate. The curlew breeds on many of
our hills and fell-sides, but a few pairs also
nest near our seaboard.
221. Whimbrel. Numenius phaopus (Linn.).
Locally, May-Bird, Curlew-Knave, Jack-
Curlew.
A spring and autumn visitant ; but very
few individuals appear to alight upon our shores
during the autumn migration, preferring to
cheer us with their familiar notes, uttered on
the wing as they pass over, to resting in their
spring haunts. A few immature birds fre-
quent the salt marshes in August and Sep-
tember, and I once handled a local specimen
in winter ; but the whimbrel is much better
known as a spring visitant.
222. Black Tern. Hydrochelidon nigra {h'mn..).
A spring and autumn migrant. The birds
obtained at the latter season are almost exclu-
sively birds of the year in the usual incon-
spicuous dress. A lovely adult in summer
livery was sent to me in the flesh in June, 1 890.
It had been killed with a catapult while flying
over the Esk near Floriston. Immature birds
have been procured inland on several occasions,
as happened in 1898, when I identified a
young bird which had been killed near Kes-
wick in October.
223. Sandwich Tern. Sterna cantiaca, Gmelin.
Locally, Cat-Swallow.
A summer visitant to our coast, occasionally
entering the waters of the Solway Firth, but
restricted as a breeding bird to Drigg, where
I have studied their nesting operations for
many years. Several varieties of colouration
are displayed by the eggs of this breeding
station, some of the specimens being very rich
in blotchings. The young, which correspond
21Z
BIRDS
so closely with their environment as to be
very difficult to detect among the sand bents,
are chiefly fed upon sand eels and other small
fishes ; but an old bird (which I happened to
open) had only been feeding on small bivalve
shells.
224. Roseate Tern. Sterna dougalli, Montagu.
A rare visitant. A fine male was shot
near the point of Burgh Marsh on July 26th,
1834. It was identified by Mr. T. C. Hey-
sham.
225. Common Tern. Sterna Jluviaiiiis,'NsiU-
mann.
Locally, Sea-Swallow, Jerky, Pickman {obs.).
Quantities of this summer visitant nest
among the sand-hills at Drigg, which possesses
the largest establishment of these birds in the
county ; but a smaller colony has existed for
many years on Rocklifie Marsh, as noted by
Mr. T. C. Heysham as long ago as 1834.
In this latter locality the eggs are simply
deposited on the sand at the edge of the marsh
or on the greensward. I have seen birds of
the year which had been procured as late as
November in the interior of the county.
226. Arctic Tern. Sterna macrura^'UdMm.iinn.
A spring and autumn visitant, most abund-
ant in our waters during August and September,
though probably a few pairs nest at Raven-
glass. A photo of a bird taken at Drigg
during the summer of 1898 seems to be that
of an undoubted arctic tern, and the bird in
question was sitting on her eggs. But I was
never able to identify this tern among the
hundreds that nest imder the protection of
Lord Muncaster.
227. Little Tern. Sterna minuta, Linn.
A summer visitant, nesting numerously at
Drigg and in increasing numbers near Silloth.
A pair or two usually nest about Grune Point
also. When the warrens which abut upon
the precincts of this little seabird are invaded
the birds rise in the distance from the beach
and wheel round in lofty circles screaming
their displeasure in harsh cries resembling the
syllables * yaai yaai,' occasionally prefaced
by * tui, tui, tuk.' If the threatened danger
be withdrawn some of the birds will alight
upon a ridge of the sea beach in the midst of
a pile of debris, seaware, etc., while the re-
mainder hover over the sands, curvetting with
much velocity, and often skimming over the
surface almost like swallows.
228. Sabine's Gull. Xema sabinii (J, Sabine).
A specimen of this high arctic bird was shot
upon Rockliffe Marsh, September, 29th, 1893,
under the following circumstances. A local
gunner named William Routledge was lying
up in a creek on the marsh waiting for a shot
at golden plover, as the tide was rising and a
strong south-west wind blowing, when the
Sabine's gull rose off the Esk in which it had
been swimming about 1 1 a.m., and flew in
the direction of the wildfowler, travelling
slowly against the wind. The bird did not
notice Routledge, but flew so close past him
that he might almost have felled it with his
gun. Noticing the forked tail barred with
black, and thinking that it must be a strange
bird, he waited until it was a fair distance
from him, and then fired and brought it down.
He and Thomas Peal brought it to me on the
following day, enquiring if it was some
variety of tern. It looked no larger than a
pigeon as it lay on my table in the flesh, but
measured twelve inches and a half. The tarsi
were pale grey ; the webs of the feet pale
yellowish ; the claws dull black, irides dark
brown ; interior of mouth bright yellow ; bill
black, but the basal portion yellowish. The
body was well nourished, but a good many
ticks adhered to the feathers. It was preserved
for the Carlisle Museum.
229. Little Gull, Larus minutus, Pallas.
A rare visitant, chiefly noticed in the neigh-
bourhood of the Sol way Firth, but of occa-
sional occurrence inland, though never appar-
ently procured among the larger lakes of the
county. The specimens obtained since the
publication of the Fauna of Lakeland in 1892,
include the following : an immature bird shot
on October 25th, 1893, on RockliiFe Marsh
by a gunner named Park, and sent to me in
the flesh by the late Alfred Smith of Castle-
town ; a similar bird sent to me by Irving
Murray, of Priestside near Annan, January
13th, 1894 ; a very interesting bird, which
had begun to moult in adult wing-quills, shot
at Skinburness by W. Nicol, June 29th, 1894,
and sent to me before the delicate rosy tint
had begun to fade from the feathers of the
breast ; a very young specimen shot on the
north side of the Esk near Rockliffe by
Thomas Peal, September i6th, 1896 (the first
that I had handled in the flesh in nest feather) ;
Mr. T. Mann presented to me a very yoimg
bird which he had shot on the coast between
AUonby and Mowbray, October 9th, 1896 ;
yet another nearly mature bird was shot by
T. Peal near Bowness-on-Solway, December
30th, 1897.
213
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
230. Black-headed Gull.
Linn.
Larus ridihundus,
Locally, Chir-maw, Drake-Catcher, Black-
headed Crow.
There are few more beautiful sights than a
colony of these birds, which has become
established upon one of our wilder mosses in
early spring. The scene presented by such
a locality as Salta Moss, when the banks of
the dubs or small ponds are lined with the
nests of this small gull, and the birds alight
in every prominent position, or hover over-
head in disordered crowds, sweeping this way
and that, and noisily screaming their harsh
cries of resentment at an intrusion of their
chosen haunts, is too striking to be easily
effaced from memory. These gregarious birds
adapt themselves to a variety of circumstances
in the choice of their nurseries. Some nest
on heather-covered wastes such as Bowness
Moss on Solway Flow ; others nest (though
not every year) upon the green turf of Rock-
liflFe Marsh ; others again build on masses of
water-plants, as I have witnessed at Monkhill
Lough and Moorthwaite ; and yet the greatest
number of all elect to rear their progeny
among the sand dunes near Ravenglass. The
young birds haunt our estuaries and inland
waters during early autumn, but the majority
of these immature birds appear to leave us
before the advent of winter.
231. Common Gull. Larus canus, Linn.
A number of common gulls frequent our
arable fields, and many haunt our shores in
all stages of life all through the year ; but
this species has not been proved to nest in the
county.
232. Herring-Gull. Lams argentatus, Gmelin.
A resident upon our coast- line all through
the year, nesting at Sandwith and occasion-
ally upon Bowness Flow ; though this last
remark only refers to a couple of pairs.
Adults in all stages of plumage haunt our
sandy reaches, feeding on small crabs and on
all kinds of refuse, including carrion.
233. Lesser Black-backed Gull. Larus fuscus,
Linn.
A numerous resident, many pairs nesting
upon Solway Flow and Bowness Moss ; and,
inland, upon Butterburn Flow. At other
seasons it is distributed all round our coast.
It is a common visitant to our rivers, and im-
mature birds often assemble in our fields. It
is a very voracious bird, and frequently kills
young wild ducks, Mr. D. L. Thorpe in-
forms me that on two different occasions he
has seen a lesser black-backed gull capture a
full-grown eel in the shallows of the Eden,
and devour it upon a neighbouring gravel bed.
234. Great Black - backed Gull. Larus
marinus, Linn.
Locally, Devoke, Water-Maw {pbs^.
A few immature birds frequent our coast
at all seasons, and adults are generally present,
but there is only a single breeding station,
that of Bowness Moss, where a very few pairs
contrive to hold their own. Odd pairs occa-
sionally rear their young on Wedholm Flow,
and on other mosses in the vicinity of the
Solway Firth.
Devoke Water was the home of this bird
from the ' twenties ' to the * seventies,' when
the breeding birds for some unexplained
reason suddenly abandoned their time-
honoured breeding-ground. Although occa-
sionally met with far from the coast, this bird
is most characteristic of the Solway Firth,
where its cries often float along the shingled
shore. There is something weird and strik-
ing about the deep note of Larus marinus that
serves to distinguish it markedly from the
shriller cries of all our common sea-gulls.
When a heavy westerly gale has been blow-
ing up the firth with almost hurricane force
for many hours, and long green rollers come
foaming landward, the great black-backed gull
hovers over the raging waters with swift and
veering flight, easily borne aloft by its power-
ful pinions, and finding its pleasure in the
contemplation of the raging elements. But it
is equally at home upon our sands on a
summer's day, when the sunshine gilds the
light ripples at the edge of the tideway ; at
such a time, a pair of fully adult birds make
up a pretty picture, as they pose in the centre
of a group of seafowl, slowly shifting their
position as the rising tide encroaches upon
them.
235. Glaucous Gull. Larus glaucus, Yabricius.
A rare winter visitant, occurring all round
our seaboard, but only at long intervals. The
only bird that I saw in life during my seven-
teen years' residence in Lakeland was driven
upon our coast by a westerly hurricane. It
was so tired of battling against the adverse
elements that I was able to inspect it leisurely,
though it would not permit me to approach
quite within gunshot. It was in nearly adult
plumage, the delicate mantle being only varied
with a few immature feathers. It was rest-
ing on the beach near AUonby when first
observed. On February 25th, 1892, a very
pale immature bird which had frequented the
Esk near Floriston since the beginning of the
month was killed when feeding on a dead fish,
214
BIRDS
and brought to me the same evening. It was
a large bird, for the alar expanse exceeded
five feet by half an inch. It is preserved in
the Carlisle Museum.
236. Iceland Gull. Larus leucopterus, Faber.
Though a rare winter visitant to our coast-
line, this arctic bird appears to visit this county
somewhat more frequently than the glaucous
gull. The Carlisle Museum contains an im-
mature bird shot near Millom, January 28th,
1882. George Dawson of Carlisle showed
me a newly-mounted bird (the legs being still
soft), which he assured me that he had shot
in a field near Carlisle, February 28th, 1898.
This was immature, as was a third seen near
Maryport by Mr. R. Mann, February loth,
1899. When observed it was crossing a
rough meadow in company with a number of
other gulls. The first specimen that I know
to have been procured upon our borders was
shot on the Solway Firth opposite to Brow-
houses, February 8th, 1835.
237. Kittiwake. Rissa tridactyla (Linn.).
A common winter visitant, present with
us during almost every month, but most
numerously represented during the colder
months when it haunts our fields inland. I
have seen odd birds in summer ; where rocky
escarpments present a shelter on the Solway
Firth the kittiwake might perhaps breed with
us, but I never found it doing so on the Sand-
with difife.
238. Great Skua. Megalestris cat arr hades
(Linn.).
An exceedingly rare bird on the west coast
of England. The late Mr. T. C. Heysham
recorded a specimen which was captured alive
on the RockliiFe Marsh, April 27th, 1833,
and taken to him on the following day. It
was secured while engaged in killing a herring-
gull {Phil. Mag., 1834, p. 339). Other
examples have been reported to me, but I
never examined a fresh individual during my
residence in Lakeland.
239. Pomatorhine Skua. Stercorarius pomato-
rhinus (Temminck).
This skua occurs on the coast of Cumber-
land with tolerable frequency — not annually,
for several years often elapse between its visit-
ations — but still four specimens entered my
possession between 1884 and 1898. The
first of these was a bird in the second or third
winter, killed near Bowness-on-Solway by
George Holmes, October 24th, 1884. A
fine adult was shot by Sam Wright on the
edge of the Carlisle racecourse, December
22nd, 1894. On October 28th, 1898, I
received from R. Broatch, of Rigg Foot, a
bird in the brown dress of immaturity, with
the information that he had shot it whilst it
was feeding on a seagull. A few days later
I received from the same wildfowler a second
specimen, shot in the same part of the Solway
Firth as the first. The foregoing birds are
preserved in the Carlisle Museum. Others
have been obtained as stragglers all round the
coast, from Drigg to Rockliffe.
240. Richardson's Skua. Stercorarius crepi-
datus (Gmelin).
Locally, Black-Gull, Sea-Hawk, Bo'sun's Mate.
An irregular visitant to the waters of the
Solway Firth, occasionally met with in the
interior of the county. The dark form is
that which has generally come under my
notice locally ; but a bird of probably the
second year, shot at Beckfoot, October 4th,
1890, belonged to the light form. Skuas are
not infrequently seen on the Solway Firth in
May and October ; but a few appear in July
and August, and from that time on to Christ-
mas.
241. Long-tailed or Buffon's Skua. Ster-
corarius parasiticus (Linn.).
A rare visitant, chiefly met with during the
autumn. In 1885, an adult in lovely plumage
frequented the Eden near Kirkandrews early
in June, but was shot on the 3rd of that
month, and presented to me by Dr. John
Macdougall, whose generosity enabled me to
examine it in the flesh. I foimd it to be
a male by dissection. It is preserved in the
Carlisle Museum. Birds in various stages of
plumage have been obtained at different points
of the coast. The most remarkable visitation
of this skua occurred in October, 1891, when
I examined about ten freshly-killed specimens
obtained along the west coast from Walney
Island to Kirkbride, and as far inland as the
borders of Westmorland. None of these
were in the plumage of the first year ; but
very juvenile specimens have also come under
my notice. Birds in the plumage of the first
autumn were procured at Kirkoswald, No-
vember 5th, 1890 ; at Skirwith, October
1 6th, 1891 ; and near Maryport, October
nth, 1895.
242. Razorbill. Alca tarda, Linn.
The razorbill nested recently on the diflfe
at Sandwith, and probably still does so ; in
August, 1894, a very small but feathered
nestling was washed up at Allonby in a
fresh condition. Birds of the year frequently
perish in heavy gales, as do a lesser number
of adults.
215
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
243. Guillemot. Uria troile (Linn.).
Locally, Old Wife.
Present in our tideway all through the
year, but the only breeding colony is at
Sandwith. Enormous numbers perish in late
autumn and winter, chiefly after heavy wea-
ther, when their carcases strew our beach for
many miles. Stragglers often occur far in-
land.
244. Black Guillemot. Uria grylle (Linn.).
This guillemot is a rare bird in our waters ;
so rare that I never myself examined but one
local specimen. The bird in question was
caught in a ditch between Silloth and the
Abbey Holme, October, 1891. Other speci-
mens have been obtained on our open coast,
but only at long intervals.
245. Little Auk. Mergulus alle (Linn).
A rare winter visitant, obtained at least as
often inland as upon our seaboard. The most
recent specimens that have come under my
notice include the following : one sent to me
from the Solway Firth by Bryson of Port
Carlisle, December, 1893 ; two captured
near Penrith, and a third taken on the
Eden near Carlisle, January, 1895 ; a fourth
procured near Port Carlisle by Greenwood the
punt-gunner, and brought to me in the flesh,
December, 1896 ; a fifth shot by W. Nicol,
near Skinburness, February, 1900.
246. PufBn. Fratercula arct'ica (Linn.).
Locally, Sea-Parrot, Manx Puffin.
A tolerably common bird along our coast ;
but the birds that are washed ashore are usu-
ally immature. An old bird in full breeding
dress was brought to me at Allonby, May 5th,
1897, having just been picked up upon the
beach. I have also met with this species in
the Solway Firth in mid-winter.
247. Great Northern Diver. Colymbus glaci-
alis, Linn.
Our larger lakes are occasionally visited by
birds of this species in summer, as well as
during the winter months. It occurs like-
wise on our open coast, but is rare in the
shallow waters of the Solway Firth. Speci-
mens have been obtained far inland.
248. Black-throated Diver. Colymbus arctkus,
Linn.
This diver occasionally visits UUeswater
Lake ; a young female was shot on that
extensive sheet of water, January ist, 1891.
I had previously examined another local bird ;
but this was an adult, fast acquiring summer
plumage. It was killed on the Eden near
Rickerby, whilst feeding on fry, March 20th,
1888. Others have been obtained on our
estuaries and inland waters, but this diver is
one of our rarer birds. It is usually procured
in the winter time.
249. Red-throated Diver. Colymbus septen-
trionalis, Linn.
Locally, Speckle-backed Diver.
A spring and autumn visitant to the estu-
aries of Cumberland, and met with incident-
ally in almost every month of the year, the
red-throated diver is well known to our
fishermen and punt-gunners ; it occurs in-
land but very rarely, preferring the sea to
freshwater lakes during its sojourn with us.
I have picked up adults which have been
washed ashore dead, having previously shed
their wing quills and being thus disqualified
for combating a succession of heavy gales.
250. Great Crested Grebe. Podicipes crtsta-
tus (Linn.).
This grebe has been obtained at most sea-
sons in Cumberland, even in July, when it
might have been expected to be breeding. It
is however principally a winter visitant, and
as such is often shot on our larger lakes as
well as on such lesser sheets of water as Tal-
kin Tarn, where an adult in winter dress was
killed on February 28th, 1898. I have often
seen birds that had been killed in spring, when
assuming nuptial dress.
25 1 . Red-necked Grebe. Podicipes griseigena
(Boddaert).
A winter visitant of somewhat rare occur-
rence on the larger rivers. No adult in sum-
mer livery has ever been procured in the
county up to date ; but a very pretty bird
in first dress was shot by W. Nicol at Skin-
burness, September 22nd, 1894. It may be
seen in the Carlisle Museum.
252. Slavonian Grebe. Podicipes auritus
(Linn.).
This small grebe occurs on our rivers and
lakes from September to March, but has not
been procured in either nuptial or first plum-
age. It sometimes appears in couples, but
never in flocks. A bird killed near Drum-
burgh in March, 1897, was still in winter
dress ; but another killed near Silloth on
March 17th, 1889, had newly commenced
to acquire summer dress.
25 3. Eared Grebe. Podicipes nigricollis
(Brehm).
A rare visitant, obtained at long intervals
upon our estuaries and inland waters, but only
in winter or immature plumage. During the
severe weather of January, 1895, when sharp
frost prevailed in most parts of England, a
216
BIRDS
female eared grebe was shot at Ulleswater and
shown to me in the flesh. Again in Decem-
ber, 1896, James Smith of Drumburgh shot
a fine eared grebe at the side of the river
Wampool.
254. Little Grebe or Dabchick. Podicipes
Jluviatilis (Tunstall).
A local resident, nesting in a few localities,
and common on our rivers and ponds in win-
ter. It is however far less plentiful than in
many southern counties.
255. Storm-Petrel. Procellaria pelagica^ Linn.
Locally, Mother Carey's Chicken.
A winter visitant to our coast, not infre-
quently met with oflF Whitehaven, and occa-
sionally present in small flocks in Silloth Bay,
especially during heavy weather in the Atlan-
tic. The most recent specimen that I have
seen locally was obtained at Silloth, November
1 0th, 1900.
Oceanodroma
256.
Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel.
leucorrhoa (Vieillot).
This petrel occurs in Cumberland at irreg-
ular intervals, principally during the autumn
months, but sometimes as early as July. Single
birds are chiefly met with, generally birds of
the year, but all the specimens that I examined
during the great visitation of September, 1891,
were old birds deep in moult. The indivi-
duals that have most recently come into my
hands were shot in the neighbourhood of the
Solway Firth : the one shot near Newton Ar-
losh, November 21st, 1893, the other killed
when flying across the sands under my win-
dows at Allonby, November 8th, 1 899.
257. Wilson's Petrel. Oceanites oceankus
(Kuhl).
Mr. T. C. Heysham informed Yarrell of
the occurrence of a specimen of this petrel in
the county. The late Captain Johnson, an-
other friend and associate of Yarrell, identi-
fied a second example found dead near Castle-
steads in 1 88 1.
258. Manx Shearwater. Puffinus anglorum
(Temminck).
I have no notes of this seabird occurring
inland ; but storm - driven individuals are
picked up from time to time upon our open
coast, and less frequently on the shores of the
Solway Firth. A specimen which came ashore
near Allonby in August, 1894, was the first
local specimen that Mr. T. Mann and his
brother had met with in their lifelong experi-
ence. I found another derelict bird at Allon-
by, May 3rd, 1897.
259. Fulmar. Fulmarus glacialis (Linn,).
An occasional visitant to our coast, but of
comparative rarity. A very good specimen of
the grey-breasted form was brought to me in
the flesh by Thomas Peal, who had secured it
upon RockliflFe Marsh, February, 1892. A
specimen of the white-breasted variety was
found dead upon Newton Marsh, February
6th, 1894. A third bird was picked up ex-
hausted near Eskmeals, October, 1896. This
last was presented to Dr. Cass of Ravenglass.
217
MAMMALS
A region of rugged heights and secluded valleys, the sides of which
are frequently broken by precipitous escarpments of rock or loose screes
of debris, is well calculated to afford a safe retreat to such timid and re-
tiring creatures as the red deer [Cervus elaphus), the roe (Capreolus
capreolus), the wild cat {Felis catus), the badger [Meles meles) and the
pine marten {Mustela martes) ; not to speak of animals that are more
generally distributed, such as the otter [Lutra lutra), and the polecat
[Putorius putorius). Accordingly, we find, that while one of these ani-
mals — the wild cat — has succumbed to centuries of ruthless persecution,
the others still succeed in rearing their offspring in their natural haunts.
It may be that a few years will see the extinction of the pine marten,
as it is extremely difficult to afford effective protection to this rare and
interesting animal ; the days of the polecat also may perhaps be num-
bered. But, happily, these are exceptions. The red deer no longer
roams unheeded over vast tracts of country ; but though hedged in with
fences, the master stag still does battle for his seraglio upon the fellside,
and the hinds drop their spotted calves beneath the shelter of the bracken
fern as though they enjoyed perfect liberty. The fallow deer (Cervus
damd), an introduced species, adorns many of our county parks with its
graceful presence and diversity of colour ; while the shy roe still crops
the ivy in the coverts of the Lord of Naworth.
It is perhaps to be regretted that the black rat {Mus rattus) has
almost quitted the county ; but if the brown rat [Mus decumanus) could
also be exterminated, we should have little cause to lament the absence of
either of these pests of society.
The Cetacea which visit the coast of Cumberland are imperfectly
known, for the carcases of those that are washed ashore are generally
buried, or boiled down, without any pains being bestowed upon their
identification ; but future zoologists may perhaps be more fortunate in
this respect than we have been.
The Micro-mammals call for little remark ; but the extreme rarity
of one or two species of bat, such as the barbastelle {Barbastella barba-
stellus), seems to suggest that some, at any rate, of those which have been
taken in the county were accidental immigrants — in fact 'waifs and
strays ' from other faunal areas.
218
MAMMALS
CHEIROPTERA
1. Long-eared Bat. Phcotus auritus, Linn.
A resident species of fairly general distri-
bution, most plentiful in our wooded districts
at a low elevation. I never came across it in
the immediate neighbourhood of the coast.
2. Barbastelle. Barbastella barbaitellus, Schre-
ber.
Bell — Barbastelltts daubentonii.
Specimens of this bat were captured many
years ago near Carlisle, and entered the col-
lection of T. C. Heysham. As no others
have been procured, in spite of a search ex-
tending over many years, it must be conjec-
tured that the examples in question had wan-
dered to Cumberland accidentally.
3. Pipistrelle. Ptpistreilus pipistrel/us,SchTeher.
Bell — Scotophiks ptpistreilus.
Locally, Common Bat, Flittermouse.
A resident, very plentiful even in the im-
mediate neighbourhood of the coast. This
species has often visited my windows in
pairs, picking crepuscular insects ofF the win-
dow panes.
4. Natterer's Bat. Myotis nattereri, Kuhl,
Bell — Vespertilio nattereri.
A colony of this species was discovered at
Castletown near RockclifF, in August, 1886.
Three living specimens were sent to me for
identification by the late A. Smith. T. C.
Heysham had previously obtained this species
in Cumberland, so that it is probably a resi-
dent species. I have not however procured
specimens in any other part of the county.
Daubenton's Bat.
ler.
Myotis daubentoni, Leis-
Bell — Vespertilio daubentonii.
This water-loving bat is local but hardly to
be termed rare. I had not met with it up to
1892, but subsequent to that date two or
three specimens were brought to me. One
of them had been felled with an umbrella on
the banks of the Eden near Carlisle. T. C.
Heysham obtained a specimen on the Carlisle
Canal near Beaumont in August, 1852.
6. Whiskered Bat. Myotis mystacinusy Leisler.
Bell — Vespertilio mystacinus.
T. C. Heysham procured a single specimen
at Carlisle in August, 1852. Three others
were brought to me from the same neighbour-
hood at intervals of several years. This bat
is probably scarce, but I doubt if it is actually
rare.
INSECTIVORA
7. Hedgehog. Erinaceus europaus, Linn.
Locally, Urchin {obs.).
A common resident in most wooded dis-
tricts, often destroyed in consequence of its
taste for eggs and young birds.
8. Mole. Talpa europaa^ Linn.
Locally, Mowdy-warp, Mowdy-wark.
An abundant resident even among our hill-
sides. Some very beautiful orange and cream-
coloured varieties have come under my notice
from time to time, and specimens of a dull
brown are common in certain localities.
9. Common Shrew. Sorex araneus, Linn.
Bell — Sorex vulgaris.
A resident species, often killed by house
cats, especially when they are rearing kittens.
It is also a favourite food of the barn-owl
{Strix flammea).
10. Pigmy Shrew. Sorex minutus, Pallas.
Bell — Sorex pygmaus.
A resident species, but apparently much
scarcer than the common species. Messrs.
Mann supplied me with a fresh specimen from
Aigle Gill.
1 1 . Water Shrew. Neomys fodiens, Pallas.
Bell — Crossopus fodiens.
This shrew is local, but must be plentiful
in the neighbourhood of the Eden because it
occurs so often there in the pellets of owls.
Both the black and the parti-coloured forms
occur in Cumberland, though I believe the
former to be comparatively uncommon.
CARNIVORA
12. Wild Cat. Felis catus, Linn.
In former days there were many wild
cats among the crags and screes of this
mountainous county. Christenbury Crag
was famous for its breed of these animals.
and possibly it was from this neighbourhood
that the household of Lord William Howard
was supplied with furs. We read the fol-
lowing entry among ' My Lord's Parcells ' in
1 629 : ' May — 6. For a wilde cattskinne
219
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
iiiji.' Wild cats were also numerous among
the hills in central Lakeland, and generally
fetched a shilling per head as vermin. Dr,
Heysham observed that the breed was becom-
ing extinct in the closing decade of the eight-
eenth century. The last that Mr. W.
Hodgson heard of was killed on Great Mell
Fell early in the nineteenth century.
13. Fox. Vulpes vulpes, Linn.
Bell — Vulpes vulgaris.
Locally, Tod {pbs.).
In the spring of the year many lambs are
killed by our foxes, which the shepherds dis-
tinguish as being either greyhound or terrier
foxes. These animals were formerly pro-
scribed owing to the damage which they in-
flicted upon flock-masters. My friend the
late T. Lees found that the custom of the
churchwardens paying 3^. /^d. for every fox's
head presented at the Easter vestry, was still
in vogue at Greystoke when he went there
in 1856. The charge was disallowed that
year for the first time on the ground that the
keepers who claimed the reward were already
paid by their employer to kill vermin. When
analysing the Greystoke accounts, I found
that the churchwardens paid for ninety-one
foxes during the fifty years which elapsed be-
tween 1752 and 1 802. Of this number,
only eleven were cubs. The Keswick men
were ardent cub-hunters. It appears from
the accounts of Crosthwaite parish, that in
1723 they killed thirteen cubs in the season,
and, two years later, accounted for twelve
cubs and one old fox. A cub only brought
in a shilling ; but on the Naworth estate as
much as five shillings was sometimes paid for
a fox.
14. Pine Marten. Mustela martes, Linn.
Bell — Martes abietum.
Locally, Swreet Mart, Clean Mart, Crag Mart.
The pine marten is rare in the east of the
county and practically unheard of in the
north, but contrives to preserve a precarious
footing among the mountain tops in the cen-
tre and west of Cumberland. It might be-
come fairly numerous were it not that the
value of local specimens often tempts the
cupidity of keepers who naturally enough are
glad to add to their modest income by trap-
ping any 'marts' that come in their way.
Mr. F. Nicholson, who has paid great atten-
tion to this animal in Cumberland, considers
that it is fairly constant to its customary
haunts. The pine marten of our hills is not
to any great extent a woodland animal, pre-
ferring to make its home in inaccessible crags,
from which it descends to raid the rabbit
warrens in the valleys. Most of the speci-
mens that have come under my notice in a
fresh state had been killed in winter when the
pelt of this animal is much finer than during
the summer months. As long as these ani-
mals were tolerably numerous they used to be
hunted by the dalesmen, and many a spirited
chase has been described to me by venerable
sportsmen. The number of martens killed
in a season was never very large, but the
sport experienced was of first rate quality, for
the pine marten is a game and resourceful
quarry.
15. Polecat. Putorius putorius, Li'mn.
Bell — Mustela putorius.
Locally, Foumart, Foul Mart.
The mosses of the low lying country were
always more to the taste of this animal than
our high dales ; but a few foumarts lingered
around outlying homesteads in the hills until
exterminated by rabbit traps. Thrustonfield
has long been a noted haunt of foumarts, ow-
ing no doubt to its contiguity to many wet
moors and commons ; from this point fou-
marts used to travel all over the Holme Cul-
tram district, with its numerous flows and
bogs. The polecat is easily tracked by its
footprints in newly fallen snow. John Daw-
son of Allonby has lived all his life in a good
district for foumarts and is a noted tracker of
wild animals. He does not consider that fou-
marts are quite extinct (1900) in the neigh-
bourhood of the Solway Firth ; that they
are very scarce may be surmised from the
fact that only two local specimens entered
my hands in seventeen years' residence. Both
of these were bitches, trapped near Silloth in
October, 1893, and September, 1894. Re-
ports from the south and east of Cumberland
are unanimous in representing the foumart as
locally all but extinct. Many particulars re-
garding the life history of this animal will be
found in the Fauna of Lakeland, pp. 27-35.
16. Stoat. Putorius ermineus, hinn.
BcW— Mustela erminea.
Fairly common, especially in parts of the
county where there is little game-preserving.
I have seen some beautiful white stoats in
the banks and hedges close to the sea, where
snow seldom lies for many days. The largest
stoat that I have handled was killed on our
northern borders in March, 1885. It mea-
sured thirteen inches in the flesh.
17. Weasel. Putorius nivalis, Linn.
Bell — Mustela vulgaris.
This little animal is very common in all
parts of the county, and shows no signs of
ever becoming scarce. Reports of pure white
specimens have reached me on more than one
220
MAMMALS
occasion ; indeed the late J. W. Harris ob-
tained a perfectly white weasel from the
vicinity of Keswick. I was also assured that
a black specimen had been killed on the Lyne-
how estate a few years ago.
1 8. Otter. Lutra Intra, Linn.
Bell — Lutra vulgaris.
The rivers and lakes of Cumberland afford
many strongholds to the otter ; indeed, no
part of England affords grander sport to de-
votees of otter-hounds than the Eden val-
ley. Trapping on the part of some who
erroneously regard the presence of the otter
as inconsistent with the preservation of salmon
reduces our river-side population of otters
periodically ; but as soon as the prejudice has
died away again, these plucky animals replen-
ish their favourite waters with fresh litters of
cubs. The largest males sometimes scale as
much as 31 lb. ; females have been found to
scale as much as 20 and 2 1 lb.
19. Badger. Meles meles, Linn.
Bell — Me/ei taxus.
Locally, Brock, Gray, Pate {pbs.).
Formerly badger-earths were to be found
in most parts of the county, from the shores
of the Solway Firth to the borders of West-
morland. Some years ago it appeared prob-
able that the old race of badgers had become
extinct ; but of late years badgers have re-
asserted their right of domicile in some of our
larger covers. Whether these animals had
escaped from confinement is difficult to deter-
mine ; but as wild badgers certainly exist in
Westmorland, it is probable that though the
numbers of badgers in Cumberland dwindled
to very small proportions, the original stock
never became entirely extinct. The Field
of May 20th, 1893, contains a note that
three weeks earlier a sow badger had been
found in a wood near Aspatria with two
young ones. Other instances of badgers
being caught of late years come to me from
the Cockermouth district.
The badger was formerly included in the
proscribed list of vermin to be exterminated at
the expense of the parish. As early as 1658,
we read in the accounts of Penrith parish,
' Payed for killinge of two paytes, 2f.' Thirty-
six badgers were killed and paid for in Dacre
parish between 1685 and 1750. A shilling
was the price set upon the head of an old
badger, and fourpence was given for a cub.
20. Common Seal. Phoca vitulina, Linn.
Immature specimens of the common seal
not infrequently enter the higher waters of
the Solway Firth in pursuit of fish, and in
exceptional cases ascend both the Eden and
Esk for a few miles. But there are no sands
or rocks on the coast of Cumberland that are
regularly frequented by these animals.
RODENTIA
21. Squirrel. Sciurus kucourus, Kerr.
Bell — Sciurus vulgaris.
Locally, Con, Swirl (pbs.).
The squirrel is plentiful lin wooded dis-
tricts, but there are many parts of the county
in which a squirrel is never seen, simply be-
cause timber and coppices are absent. The
late Tom Duckworth once saw a black variety
near Rose Castle.
22. Dormouse. Muscardinus avellanarius,
Linn.
Bell — Myoxus avellanarius.
The dormouse is rare in Cumberland, but
has been taken on a good many occasions in
the south of the county. It has never been
reported to me from any of our eastern fells.
23. Brown Rat. Mus decumanus, Pallas.
Locally, Rattan.
This pest is only too plentiful in most of
our homesteads. Many frequent the coast-
line feeding on animal and other substances
thrown up by the tide.
24. Black Rat. Mus rattus, Linn.
As long ago as 1796, Dr. Heysham con-
sidered that the old English black rat had
become ' very rare ' in Cumberland. I have
never myself seen a fresh local specimen,
though reliable reports of the presence of this
animal have reached me from the west of
Cumberland on several occasions.
25. House Mouse. Mus musculusy Linn.
The universal presence of this animal calls
for no remark ; but it may be noted that
white varieties occasionally occur in a state of
nature.
26. Wood Mouse or Long-tailed Field Mouse.
Mus sylvaticus, Linn.
A common resident in woods and gardens,
and one that is easily reconciled to the loss of
liberty.
27. Harvest Mouse. Mus minutus, Pallas,
A rare animal in Cumberland, but speci-
mens have been captured in the north of the
321
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
county in isolated instances. I have never
seen it myself in the north of England.
28. Water Vole. Microtus amphibius, Linn.
Bell — Arvicola amphibius.
Locally, Water Rat.
Exceedingly numerous on the Caldew and
most of our rivers and inland waters ; at
Edenhall it forms an important item in the
dietary of the heron. Melanism occurs in
individual specimens, but very rarely. It is
a curious fact that a species so partial to
water should rear its young among the sand
dunes on Drigg Common ; but that it does so
I have proved by personal investigation.
29. Field Vole. Microtus agrestis, Linn.
Bell — Arvicola agrestis.
This little animal is extremely common
and of very general distribution, sometimes
causing great damage to hill pastures. A
very pretty grey and white variety was
brought to me from Drumburgh. It was a
full-grown animal. The Duckworths were
at one time acquainted with a little colony of
field voles, among which pied examples often
occurred.
30. Bank Vole. Evototnys glareolus, Schreber.
Bell — Arvicola glareolus.
This interesting little mammal is probably
common in the county, but is best known to
me as well established at Aigle Gill. It is
generally observed in winter, at which season
it makes its home in heaps of turnips, two
pairs of full-grown voles and one smaller one
being generally found together. In confine-
ment it becomes a tame and fascinating pet.
3 1 . Hare. Lepus europaus, Pallas.
Bell — Lepus timidut.
A resident species, but in very sparing
numbers except upon a few large estates.
Hares not infrequently lie out upon the salt-
marshes ; I have known of their being
drowned by the tide. In November, 1884,
a pied hare was killed in the county, having
the forehead and muzzle, the sides of the
head, two fore-paws and one hind-paw per-
fectly white. This, and a larger specimen in
which the red hairs are plentifully mixed with
white, have since been presented to the Car-
lisle Museum.
32. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn.
Locally, Coney.
Warrens have long existed in the neigbour-
hood of our coast, and many black and sandy
varieties occur. In 1883 I saw a tame speci-
men which had entered on its eleventh year
of captivity. It belonged to a working man
at Carlisle, and enjoyed the run of the house,
being a familiar and Umusing pet.
UNGULATA
33. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn.
The red deer of Gowbarrow Park are
lineal descendants of the race of stags and
hinds which cropped the sweet grass and
toothsome clover of the Cumbrian hills when
the Roman legions tramped across High Street
and manned their forts upon the shores of the
Solway Firth. All Roman settlements in the
county yield remains of red deer, and the
antlers were of far more vigorous growth
than can be foimd in these days. The deer
of Gowbarrow Park often receive visits from
stags that have descended from Martindale
Forest to the edge of Ullswater, and swum
the cool waters of the lake, in order to pay
court to the fat hinds of ' Wethermlake,' as
the locality was anciently entitled. A famous
deer-forest was that of Inglewood, which long
remained a royal chase. Ennerdale Forest
was the last home of the free wild deer that
knew nothing of enclosed life, but took toll
of the oats of the dalesmen at their own
sweet will. I have inspected several fine
herds of red deer in private parks, such as
those of Muncaster, Crofton, Highmoor ; but
only at Gowbarrow is there a strain of white
blood. This is due to the introduction many
years ago of a white stag, supplied by Lord
Petre, and believed to be of continental origin.
This white stag lived for many years at Gow-
barrow, but was killed when very old (in the
sixties) by the younger and more vigorous
animals setting upon him, as Mr. H. Howard
informed us. Several white descendants of
this stag were still living at Gowbarrow when
I last inquired about the herd. For a fuller
account of the red deer of Cumberland refer-
ence must be made to The Fauna of Lakeland,
pp. 50-64.
34. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn.
The bucks of Cumberland once afforded
good sport to royalty ; indeed an early chroni-
cler accredits Edward the First with having
killed two hundred bucks and does in Ingle-
wood. The Howards kept a good stock of
223
MAMMALS
bucks at Naworth in the days when England
was ruled by the Stuarts. So indispensable
was a haunch of venison to public hospitality,
that when the judges were entertained at the
Carlisle Assizes in 1661, an entire buck was
carted all the way from Millom to the scene
of the banquet. The Fauna of Lakeland con-
tains a digest of all that I have been able to
bring to light about the fallow deer of this
county. But it may be remarked that, while
at Levens Park the milk-white deer, which
occasionally appear in that dark herd, are per-
fectly white when dropped and always re-
main so, the white fallow deer which exist in
the mixed herd at Edenhall are not pure white
at birth, but a cinnamon-white, from which
condition they pass to a pure white stage in a
term of four or five years.
35. Roe Deer. Capreolus capreolus, Linn.
Bell — Capreolus caprea.
The roe was once plentiful in the thickets
of our forests, especially in the Naworth
woods, whence a draught of no fewer than
thirty-two kids was despatched in carts to
London for Charles the First, in 1633. The
price paid to those who had captured these
young animals was about five shillings a kid.
Six men and seven horses were required to
convey them to the south. The kids were
procured in the month of June. We are
assured that a few roe deer still exist in the
Naworth district, and others visit the Netherby
estate from the Scottish borders. Single
stragglers have been known to occur as far
south as Penrith.
CETACEA
36. Sperm Whale. Physeter macrocephalus,
Linn.
A sperm whale was cast ashore near Flimby
on April 21st, 1840. It measured 58 feet
in length and 26 feet in girth, as recorded in
the Carlisle Patriot of April 24th, 1840.
37. Bottle-nosed Whale. Hyperoodon ros-
tratus, Mailer.
This cetacean has often visited our waters,
and dead specimens have frequently been
washed ashore by the tide ; as for example in
September, 1897, and August, 1887, when
specimens were beached near Mowbray and
Maryport.
38. Grampus. Orca gladiator, Bonnaterre.
An occasional visitant to the channels of
the Solway Firth, among which it is some-
times left high and dry by the retiring tide.
In July, 1874, six of these animals made
their appearance in Silloth Bay, and one of
them, an adult female, was stranded near
Skinburness. I showed a tooth of this animal
to the late Sir W. H. Flower.
39. Pilot-whale, or Black Fish. Globicephalus
melas, Traill.
Locally, Bottle-nose.
Herds of these animals occasionally appear
off our coast, and in some instances they have
been known to push their way up the Solway
Firth as high as Silloth and Bowness, only to
be stranded upon the flat sands, and buried
by the coastguard service. A single example
was found dead near Silloth in the autumn
of 1898.
40. Porpoise. Phocana communis. Lesson.
Locally, Sea Pig, Sea Swine.
These animals often endeavour to drive
shoals of herring and other round fish into
our inshore waters. I have watched them
careering through the swell of the Solway
Firth on many a wild morning ; but they
rarely stay long in our partly land-locked
waters, preferring to plough their way through
the open main, unchecked by tortuous chan-
nels or shifting sandbanks.
41. Bottle-nosed Dolphin.
Fabricius.
Tursiops tursio,
Bell — Delphinus tursio.
A young example of this rather rare species
was killed in the Esk near Longtown, on or
about July 30th, 1896. We saw it imme-
diately after, and had it photographed in the
flesh.
223
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EARLY MAN
OF the earliest inhabitants of the district now known as Cumber-
land, the men of the Stone Age, whose only implements for
war, for the chase, or for domestic use were of stone, bone or
shell, no histories written with the pen have been handed down
to us : for what we know of them we are indebted to such of their relics
as may be accidentally found on the surface of the ground, or beneath it,
or may be turned up by the spade in the hands of trained observers. But
little work with the spade, compared with what might have been done,
has been undertaken. When the Cumberland and Westmorland Anti-
quarian and Archaeological Society was formed in 1866, Canon Greenwell,
D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., and the late Canon Simpson, LL.D., F.S.A.,
both experienced excavators and trained observers, urged upon the new
Society the importance of this kind of work. They also cautioned the
Society as to the danger of entrusting it to unskilful hands, who too
frequently disturb and disperse the contents of barrows without putting
on record a satisfactory and sufficient account of the barrow itself, of the
mode of burial, and, in case of a burial by inhumation, of the type of
the skull ; or, in case of a burial after cremation, of the character of the
urn containing the ashes. These exhortations have not been without
effect in the sphere of the Society's work (viz. Cumberland, Westmor-
land and Lancashire north of the Sands). More exploration of this
kind has been done, and better done, in Westmorland and in Lancashire
north of the Sands, than in Cumberland. The chief workers in
Westmorland were the two eminent archaeologists just mentioned and
the late M. W. Taylor, M.D., F.S.A. In Lancashire north of the
Sands, Mr. H. S. Cowper, F.S.A., has done good work, which is re-
corded in Archaologia, vol. liii. For the work in Westmorland, and
what little Canon Greenwell and his colleagues did in Cumberland,
Greenwell and RoUeston's British Barrows should be consulted. That
prehistoric work in Cumberland has been comparatively neglected is due
largely to the existence there of the Roman Wall, and the interest it
excites among all archseologists resident within reach of it. Other
working archaeologists resident in Cumberland have had their own
* As the writer of this contribution died before it was set up in type, Dr. W. Boyd
Dawkins has been so good as to read the proofs. The author's statements have not been
interfered with.
J 225 Q
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
special hobbies, such as early sculptured crosses, ecclesiastical antiquities,
genealogies, local bibliography, and the like.
THE STONE AGE
a. Long Barrows
The Stone Age has been divided into two periods. In the earlier
or Paleolithic when man did not know how to grind or polish a
stone, but only how to chip it to a sharp edge. The remains of the
Palsohthic Age are found in caves, and in river drift, but none have
been found in the district we are dealing with. Two stone implements
in the Keswick Museum, and one in the Carlisle Museum, have been
suggested as Palaeolithic, but they are more probably unfinished imple-
ments of the later or Neolithic Stone Age. It has been suggested by
Sir John Evans, K.C.B., that there are gravels in the valley of the Eden
in which Paleolithic (river drift) implements might be found. As to
how long it is since the Paleolithic man lived, it is unnecessary here to
go into that question ; dates varying from 60,000 years ago to 600,000
have been assigned to him ; it is maintained by Professor Boyd Dawkins
and Sir John Evans that a period of glaciers has intervened since he
roamed about this district — if he was ever there at all, and some of the
very features of the country have been completely changed since he lived.
But the Neolithic man, the man of the later Stone Age, who could
polish and grind a stone, saw this country much as we see it — the
position of his graves tells us that. He, too, has left no histories behind
him ; but the spade in the hands of Sir R. Colt Hoare, of Dr. Thurnam,
and of Canon Greenwell, has been the key which has unlocked the
secrets buried in his graves. The researches of Canon Greenwell have
been mainly in the Yorkshire Wolds, in Durham, Westmorland, and
Northumberland. Results only can be dealt with here ; for the evidence,
proper works must be consulted, the chief of which are Lubbock's
Prehistoric Times, Evans's Ancient Stone Implements, Thurnam's Crania
Britannica, Greenwell and RoUeston's British Barrows, and Boyd Dawkins's
Early Man in Britain.
The Neolithic man in these districts was of short stature, with a
long head (technically called dolicho-cephalic) . His facial angle, as
measured from his skull, and other evidence afforded by it, show him to
have probably had a mild and pleasant countenance. The remains of
the animals on which he lived show that he led a pastoral, semi-
agricultural existence, eking out his subsistence by the chase, rather of
birds than bigger animals. He had for domestic animals only the Bos
longerons, a species of ox ; it is doubtful if he had the goat ; he had not
the dog. He ground his grain with stones, and the sand and grit got
into the meal and wore his teeth down to the gum. He had toothache
badly, as the condition of his jaws shows. Dr. Thurnam thinks he was
a cannibal ; Canon Greenwell and Professor RoUeston repudiate the
slander. When he died, the man of the long head was buried in a lone
236
EARLY MAN
mound or barrow. (Long heads and long barrows go together ; round
heads and round barrows.) That long barrow was also the place of
sepulchre for his wife, or wives, and children. With him were deposited
certain earthen vessels, and implements of stone and bone, apparently
made new for the occasion. This may prove that he had some belief in
a future state in which he would require these things.
Many long mounds exist in Cumberland which externally bear the
appearance of long barrows ; in most cases, perhaps in all, positive proof
by excavation is wanting ; the late Dr. Simpson, than whom no man
was better acquainted with Cumberland and Westmorland farms, farmers
and their ways, has suggested that some of these long mounds are mere
bracken-stack-bottoms, bracken being formerly extensively cut and
stacked for winter use. Others, again, may be mere natural mounds,
but such natural mounds were liable to be, and have often been, adopted
by prehistoric people as ready-made places of sepulchre. The greatest
caution is therefore necessary in pronouncing upon such mounds, until
they have been explored by competent persons.
At Latterbarrow, under Ivluncaster Fell, are three long mounds
fenced in by large stones — two of them about 20 feet long and 3 feet
high, the third smaller. Their position is near the upper side of a large
grass field, on the 400 feet contour, soutii of the western end of Raven
Crag. These were first pointed out by Mr. C. W. Dymond, F.S.A.,
and promise well to repay examination. At the other extremity of
Cumberland, according to the late Rev. John Maughan, in the Archaeo-
logical Journal, vol. xl., pp. 231, 232, there were once, in the parish of
Bewcastle, in a field called Cairns, at a place known as the Nook,
Roanstrees,
five parallel ridges of stone or barrows, averaging about 150 yards in length and
about a yard deep.
They have been long cleared off to make way for the plough, and were
more probably bracken-stack-bottoms than long barrows. At Cairn
o' the Mount, near Peelohill in the same parish, is, according to the
same authority, a mound about 80 yards in length and about 8 yards
broad, pointed at each end, and terraced round. Further investigation
is required here. At Harras, near the Roman Camp of Birdoswald, is
what seems to be a fine long barrow. On Stockdale Moor in west
Cumberland is a large tumulus 35 yards long, 12 yards across at the
broadest end, while the other is pointed. This is called Sampson's
Bratful. A careful search through the district would probably add to
the number of mounds which might or might not be long barrows.
High up on the fells would be the best hunting ground, for in the valleys
mounds and tumuli are apt to be swept away by good agriculturists, who
dislike to see unproductive patches of ground in their holdings.
b. Implements
If, however, the long barrows of the dolicho-cephalic man in
Cumberland are few and doubtful, yet stone implements have been found
227
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
in many places. At Aigle Gill, near Aspatria, a stone adze and a double-
pointed stone ; AUonby, a stone hammer ; Bewcastle, six rude stone
implements (hammer heads and perforated stones), also two stone adzes,
and a stone axe ; Blackford, polished stone celt ; Blennerhasset, stone
hammer ; Bootle, stone hammer and flint and quartz arrow-heads ;
Broadfield, polished stone hammer ; Burns Common, Threlkeld, stone
hammer ; Carlisle, stone axes, pestle of greenstone, length 1 6 inches ;
Castle Carrock, flint knives ; Dearham, unpolished celt ; Distington,
stone hammer ; Drigg, stone axe ; near Eaglesfield, unpolished stone
celts ; Edenhall, Oxhouse Oaks, stone hatchets ; Ehenside (Gibb) Tarn,
stone implements ; Garlands, near Carlisle, stone implements, flint arrow-
heads ; Gelt Bridge, near Leafy Hill, flint knife ; Gosforth, stone axe ;
Grinsdale Common, stone hammer ; Hallguard Farm, Birdoswald, per-
forated stone hammer ; Hesket Newmarket, Gillfoot, stone implements
and beads, and pieces of flint ; Holm Cultram, Highlaws and Souther-
field, stone implements, celts ; Inglewood Forest, large axe ; Ireby, stone
hammer, thumb and finger stone ; Irton, flint spear-head, polished stone
axe ; Irton Fell, unpolished celt ; Irthington, flint spear-head ; Keswick,
Burns Moor, perforated hammer-head of granite ; Keswick, Castle Rigg
Stone Circle, stone implements ; Keswick, celt of greenstone, a large
celt, stone celts (9), perforated implements (6) ; Kidburngill, stone
hammer ; Kirkbeck River, Bewcastle, stone implement ; Kirkoswald,
perforated stone axe ; Kirkoswald, The Castle, stone hammers ; Lam-
plugh. Wood Moor, stone hammer ; Loweswater, stone hammer ;
Melmerby, hammer stone; Millom, ancient British battle axe, 13I
inches long (? large stone celt), also Neolithic implements; Mow-
bray, stone hammers, polished celts, stone adze ; Newtown of Mowbray,
polished celts ; Ousby, perforated stone axe ; Penrith Beacon, polished
greenstone celt ; Plumpton, Penrith, perforated stone axe ; Ravenglass,
stone axe ; Red Dial, near Wigton, perforated stone axe or hammer ;
Great Salkeld, stone celts ; Scotby, stone adze ; Solway Moss, hafted
stone celt ; Sprunston, St. Cuthbert's, Carlisle, stone hammer ; Wan-
thwaite Crags, stone celt ; Wastwater Screes, flint arrow-head ; Wetheral,
stone implements ; and Wigton, stone hammers and celts.* From this
list it will appear that the most common are large stone celts or hatchets,
the greater part of them made of felstone, and some of a shape almost
peculiar to Cumberland (see fig. 61, Evans's Ancient Stone Implements
of Great Britain, ist edit., p. 106, 2nd edit., p. 118). A fine typical
one found at Horsegills in Cumberland, and now in the Carlisle
Museum, is 15I inches long, i\ inches broad at widest part ; 3 inches
at the point, and i| inches at the butt. Perforated hammers and heavy
^ The authority for mentioning these implements will be found in * An Archaeological
Survey of Cumberland and Westmorland,' communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of
London by R. S. Ferguson, M.A., LL.M., F.S.A., and printed in Archaologia, vol. liii. ; see
also his report as local secretary to the same body, Proc. S.J., n.s., vol. viii. pp. 491-4.
See also Catalogue of the Museum formed on the occasion of the visit of the Royal Archaeological
Institute to Carlisle in 1859, printed by the Institute; and see also Ancient Stone Implements,
2nd edit., by Sir John Evans, K.C.B.
??8
EARLY MAN
stone axes also abound. An estimate presented in 1881 of the known
stone implements in Cumberland and Westmorland put the number at
about 30 stone hammers or adzes, 44 stone celts, 6 flint arrow-heads, or
in all about 100 ; but many more are known now, possibly twice as
many.^
The examples of Neolithic implements from Sol way Moss " and
Ehenside Tarn' are remarkable, being two out of the only three examples
of celts which have been found in England attached to their original
handles. A rock on Lazonby Fell has about seventy grooves upon it,
from 4 to 7 inches long and about i inch wide and deep, pointed
at either end, as if sharp-ended tools had been ground in them. The
suggestion is that they were for grinding stone celts.*
How long these dolicho-cephalic men dwelt in this district is hard
to tell. Canon Greenwell, in Ancient British Barrows, declines to hazard
a conjecture as to when they began ; but they were intruded upon by
another race, and possibly somewhere about the year i ,000 before Christ.
The new comer was a round-headed or brachy-cephalic man, who buried
his dead in round barrows, and appears to have belonged to a stronger,
sterner race than his predecessor. His bones prove him to have been
bigger (his average stature over 5 ft. 8 in.), thicker and more muscular ;
he had broad jaws, turned up nose, high cheek bones, wide mouth,
and eyes deep sunk under beetling brows that overhung them like a
pent-house — the superciliary ridges on his skull tell that. He had arms
and implements of bronze. He had learnt to domesticate the goat
and the dog, as well as the Bos longifrons, the only animal which the
long-headed man had succeeded in taming. He soon asserted his
supremacy over the long-heads — he did not annihilate them. In the
round barrows of the round-heads both long and round skulls appear ;
and in the later round barrows the skulls begin to appear occasionally of
an intermediate shape : this shows that the round-headed man with the
bronze weapons probably enslaved the long-headed man with the stone
weapons, and took the long-headed women for his wives.
This was the Bronze Age, when man had advanced to the know-
ledge of weapons and implements made of bronze : these did not wholly
supersede stone weapons and implements, for the poor man would con-
tinue to use the cheaper articles.
Many of the weapons of the brachy-cephalic men, who intruded
themselves upon the dolicho-cephalic men, have been found in Cumber-
land, but they are not so numerous in local museums as the relics of the
earlier race. The bulk of them have found their way to the melting-pot.
Forty or fifty years ago the travelling pedlar frequently bought bronze
implements from labourers and farm servants for two pence apiece, and
^ Proc. S.A., ut ante.
* See Evans's Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd edit., pp. 152, 153 ; Proc. S.A. o.s.
vol. iv. p. 112.
* Archaologia, vol. xliv, p. 273.
* Ancient Stone Implements, ut ante, p. 262.
229
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
sold them over again to the brass founders for sixpence. Bronze imple-
ments are on record as having been found at various places : At Arthuret
and at Aspatria, bronze palstaves V; at Camp Graves, Bewcastle, bronze
spear-head ; at Oxhouse Oaks, Edenhall, bronze hatchets ; in Eskdale,
bronze spear-head ; in Geltsdale, near the ' Written Rock,' bronze celt ; at
Southerfield, Holm Cultram, bronze spear-head ; Irthing River, between
Naworth and Lanercost, bronze socketed celt ; Irthington, bronze pal-
stave of adze form, very rare ; Keswick, bronze palstave with ribs ;
Longtown, bronze flanged celt ; Naworth Castle, at or near, bronze
spear-head ; Netherby, three bronze spear-heads and three bronze
palstaves ; Stanwix, bronze javehn head ; and Wigton, bronze flanged
celt.''
BRONZE AGE
a. Burial Places
Cumberland, like Westmorland, Northumberland and Durham, is
prolific in the barrow of the dolicho-cephalic race, but a very small
number of them have as yet been carefully examined. Many of these
grave-mounds are simple heaps of stones, being what are usually called
' cairns.' These are very liable to be destroyed as the area of cultiva-
tion extends ; the stones of which they are composed afford good
material for road making and mending, for building the stone walls so
characteristic of the fells, and for the filling in of drains. Many have
been thus destroyed without any record whatever being kept, beyond, in
a few cases, an inaccurate paragraph in a local paper. These barrows,
cairns, or tumuli, exist, or have existed, or Jiave been thought to exist or
to have existed, at various places : At Arthuret Church, large tumuli ;
on Aughertree Fell, Ireby, tumulus ; Askerton Park, three cairns ;
Belmont, Penrith, cistvaen only remaining ; Bleatarn, tumuli ; Boat
How, cairns ; Boothby, tumulus ; Brampton, tumuli ; Barnscar, exten-
sive settlements, enclosures, walls, cairns, burials in urns ; Bewcastle, The
Curragh, Skelton Pike, two large cairns ; Bewcastle, on Baronspike or
Barnspike, tumulus ; Bewcastle, the Shiel Knowe, starfish cairn ; Bew-
castle, on the White Lyne river, cairns ; Binsey summit, tumulus ;
Birkerthwaite, Green How, cairns and enclosures ; Blencarn, tumulus ;
Blencow Bank, with urns, incense cups, burnt bones ; Brackenhill Tower,
with cist and interments ; Broadfield, Inglewood Forest, tumulus,
circular enclosure, stone cists ; Burnmore, cairns ; Carling Knott, tumuli ;
between Carlisle and Wigton, tumuli ; Castle Carrock, Brampton,
on the Fell, cairns ; Cumrew, cairns ; Castle Carrock, Caldbeck,
cairns ; Cawfell Beck, cairns ; Dalston Hall, tumuli ; Dunmailraise,
* Professor Daniel Wilson defines palstaves as * wedges (of bronze), more or less axe-
shaped, having a groove on each side terminating in a stop ridge, and with lateral flanges
destined to secure a hold on the handle.' Preh. Ann., 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 382 ; cit. in
Evans's Ancient Bronze Implements, p. 72.
* The authority for these implements will be found in ' An Archaeological Survey,' etc.,
Evans's Ancient Bronze Implements, and Catalogue of Museum, etc., all cited ante p. 228 note.
230
EARLY MAN
cairn ; Dean, Parkhill, tumuli ; Dalston, Chapel Flat, barrow, cist ;
Dalston, Bracken How, tumulus, urns ; Devoke Water, cairns, tumuli ;
Eamont, opposite Mayburgh, tumulus ; Ennerdale Water, cairns ;
Edmund Castle Lodge, cist, urns ; Egremont Common, tumuli ; Ellen-
borough, tumulus ; Friar's Moor, tumulus with ditch ; Farlam, Kirk-
house, cists and urns ; Fisher's Cross, Port Carlisle, tumulus ; Geltsdale,
tumuli ; Gillalees Beacon, twin barrows, tumulus, and cairn ; Grassmoor,
cairn ; Greystoke, Woundel Cairn, cairns ; Garlands, near Carlisle, urns,
etc. ; Gelt Bridge, Castle Carrock, and Leafy Hill, cairns, cistvaens,
urns, etc. ; Hackmoor Hill, cistvaen ; Hallbank Gate, tumulus ; Hart-
side, Benty Hill, tumulus, called Old Anthony's Chair ; Hayton,
Brampton, tumulus ; Hesket-in-the-Forest, four small tumuli ; Hind-
scarth, large cairn ; How Mill, great tumulus ; Hesket Newmarket,
barrow ; Isell, tumuli, one called The Grey Barrow ; Keswick, Falcon
Crag, Latrig and Skiddaw, cairns and tumuli ; Kirkoswald, Old Parks,
large cairn of stones ; Knock's Cross, Port Carlisle, tumulus ; Lanercost
Bridge, tumulus ; Lazonby Fell, cairns ; Moresby Hall, stone cists ;
Newton Reigny, tumuli ; Ormstead Hill, near Eamont Cottage, tumulus ;
Plumpton Mill Hill, cairns ; Great Salkeld, raise or cairn ; Great
Salkeld, Wan Fell, tumulus ; Seatallan tumulus ; Stockdale Moor, cairns,
near the long barrow called Sampson's Bratful ; Skelton, Loaden How,
cairn ; Thirlmere, Deergarth Wood, cairns ; Tongue How, cairns ;
Ulpha Fell, cairns ; Unthank, Gamelsby Low Fell, cistvaen ; Woodhall,
The Druid Grove, barrow.^ It must not be too hastily concluded that
all the above tumuli and cairns are artificial burial places. Many of
them have been put on the list on the authority of the Ordnance Survey,
on whose maps they are marked with the word 'tumulus.' For instance,
the two mounds near Dalston Hall, one on each side of the road, marked
on the 6-inch Ordnance Survey map as tumuli, are mere undisturbed
gravel knolls, the extremities of a long winding ribbon-like Esker. This
was proved by excavation pluckily undertaken by two ladies, who were
much disappointed with their results. The same applies to the tumulus
at Lanercost Bridge, and to many or all in the Brampton neighbourhood ;
they are the remains of a great sheet of gravel, which once covered the
district and has been cleared away by denudation, except the harder or
more compact knobs. The Brampton Eskers cover a much larger area
than any group in West Cumberland, and they may be seen at a height
of 600 feet above the sea. Some of them have been opened by General
Pitt-Rivers and Lord Carlisle ; nothing but Esker gravel was found. The
great tumulus at How Mill may probably belong to this Esker group.
There is a fine isolated Esker ridge a few yards south of Arthuret Church
and Rectory, which accounts for the supposed tumuli there. There are
accumulations of Esker gravel and sand in the parish of Kirklinton be-
tween Black Snib peat moss and Brackenhill Tower, and again between
* The authority for these tumuli or cairns, etc., will be found in * An Archseological
Survey,' etc., ut ante p. 228 note. Further particulars will be given in this work in the
accounts of the various parishes in which they are severally situate.
231
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
the Heather Burn and the Longtown and Brampton Road, round Horse-
gills farmhouse. There is another Esker group between Crofton Hall
and Thursby, a series of ridges rising occasionally into circular mounds of
which Torkin, on the north side of Crofton Park, is the most conspicuous
example. There are Esker ridges between Great Orton and Carlisle.
These and the Crofton group probably account for the tumuli between
Carlisle and Wigton. In the west there is another Esker tract between
Abbey Town and Allonby.^ The pre-historic races were, however, not
above taking and improving an Esker or other natural mound as a place
of sepulchre. Other pitfalls await the unwary and would-be antiquary ;
some of these supposed sepulchral mounds may be nothing but clearance
heaps. The Parkhill tumuli in Dean, two in number, are, it is suggested,
mere archery butts. The great mound at Bleatarn has been proved to be
modern, piled up to support a summer house ; modern pottery and
tobacco pipes have been found buried at some depth in it.
In some cases the tumulus has been removed by excavators, or pos-
sibly by natural denudation, and the cist, or cistvaen, left exposed, too
frequently the only record. Of the settlement on Barnscar more will
presently be said, and also of the great cairn in Old Parks, Kirkoswald,
which was sold to the County Council of Cumberland for road material ;
from it they obtained 600 cartloads of stone. The starfish cairn at Shiel
House, Bewcastle, is one of a class of cairns found in Westmorland to
which that name was given by the late M. W. Taylor, Esq., M.D., F.S.A.
The projecting rays are later additions to the original cairn, and probably
cover later burials. The celebrated cairn at Dunmailraise, under which
the last king of rocky Cumberland is said to lie, is very doubtful. The
navvies employed on the Thirlmere Waterworks probably opened it, if it
had not already been opened by shepherds ; they certainly rebuilt it one
Sunday, and made it into a neat piece of work with a huge flat projecting
table stone on the summit. This was afterwards undone, and the
original disorder restored.
b. Contents of Graves
Owing to the dearth of scientific and systematic investigation into
the burial places of the prehistoric races that once inhabited this district,
no very certain conclusions can be drawn about these races and their
modes of life, if the local evidence found within the district is alone relied
upon. So far, however, as that evidence goes, it goes to show that the
prehistoric race or races that once dwelt in the district now called
Cumberland were the same as those that dwelt in the neighbouring
districts, now called Westmorland, Durham, Northumberland and York-
shire ; we can, therefore, adopt the conclusions arrived at by Messrs.
Greenwell and RoUeston in their valuable work on British Barrows, which
is further continued in Archceologia, vol. Hi. It is impossible to give all
these conclusions, but a few of them are referred to.
* For information about these Esker groups we are indebted to Memoirs of the Geological
Survey England and Wales, the Geology of the Country round Carlisle, by T. V. Holmes, F.G.S.
232
3
O
O
>
o
>
EARLY MAN
First of all, as to the methods of burial adopted by these prehistoric
people in the north of England. They practised both burial by inhuma-
tion and burial after cremation, but the former was by far the most usual,
a little under twenty-one per cent, only being after cremation, that is the
burials after cremation only amount to about rather less than a fourth
of those by inhumation. There appears to be some rule regulating the
practice, but in the present state of knowledge that rule is unknown : it
is not a question of sex, or of wealth, or of position, or of age ; the
instances found prove that. The unburnt body is almost always found to
have been laid upon the soil in a contracted position, that is with the
knees drawn up towards the head, which is generally more or less bent
forward, the back, however, is sometimes quite straight. So invariable
is this rule that out of 301 burials of unburnt bodies which Canon
Greenwell examined in the barrows of the Wolds, he only met with four
instances where the body had been laid at full length. These cases may
have been subsequent interments of Angles, who buried in the extended
position and flat on the back. The probability is that the contracted
position was the position in which the prehistoric races were accustomed
to sleep, drawing up their knees for the sake of warmth. Charcoal is
frequently found scattered throughout the greater part of a burial mound.
It may have been the ashes of fires on the ground from which the
material of the mound was heaped up, or of the fires at which the
funeral feasts were cooked. But Canon Greenwell suggests it may be the
ashes of a fire through which a corpse was passed without being actually
consumed — a ritualistic ceremony, resembling, as the Canon says, the
substitution of aspersion for immersion in the rite of baptism. The
occurrence with burials by inhumation of buttons of bone and of jet,
points to the bodies having been interred dressed as in their lifetime,
while the occurrence of bone pins suggests the use of some sort of shroud.
Weapons and implements, either of bronze or stone, are rarely found in
company with interments of either burnt or unburnt bodies. When they
do occur they are much more frequently of stone or flint than of bronze,
and such bronze implements as do occur are small and insignificant,
conveying the idea that the round barrows are of the early Bronze Age,
when only small articles were fabricated from that metal, either because
it was rare and expensive, or because the workers in bronze were up to
then but moderately expert. Personal ornaments also occur in barrows,
generally in connection with the burials of women.
In Hutchinson's Cumberland (vol. i. p. 151) mention is made of the
removal at Hayton about the year 1790, of a bank of sand and gravel
(probably a tumulus) and the discovery of three objects of gold, which
the country people called ' shekels,' as similar in form to the ' shekels '
of a plough beam, ' shekel ' being a name, says the writer in Hutchin-
son, which is applied to the ring fixed to a plough beam. They were
penannular in form, plain and smooth, except the two knobs at the open-
ing. They measured 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and about i^ inches in
thickness. Had they had tongues they would have been fibulae ; they
233
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
may have been torques. They were sold to a silversmith in Carlisle, who
gave ^7 for one of them and £zo for another, and no doubt have long
ago been melted. The evidence is not sufficient to enable any certain
conclusion to be arrived at. In Whellan's Cumberland, a find of stone
beads in a barrow of stones at Gillfoot, Hesket-Newmarket, is recorded.
There was there what the writer calls a
Druid's Grove, consisting of two parallel rows of large oak trees, extending 150
yards in length, and the rows 12 yards distant. In a level field at the middle of the
two rows was a barrow of stones. The trees were cut down and the barrow removed
in the year 1794, when beneath the barrow several places where human bones had
been burnt and deposited were discovered, as also numerous pieces of flint and stone
beads and a stone battle axe (p. 225).
Nothing is said as to what the beads were like : and the writer of
the above account, writing in i860, does not tell how he got his informa-
tion as to a find of beads in 1794. Beads of cannel coal, twelve in
number, were actually inside an ' incense cup,' found in a large tumulus
at Old Parks, Kirkoswald, as will be presently related.
The reason of these deposits is generally stated to be that this pre-
historic race had a belief in a future state of which the conditions would
be similar to the conditions of life upon this earth : conditions in which
the man would still want his implements of war and of the chase, and
the woman her ornaments. Other reasons may be imagined, such as
a superstitious dislike to, or fear of, a dead man's belongings. But
whatever the reason was, the puzzle is that in the majority of cases of
interment, nothing whatever is found. When things are found they
are of little value. This points to these people being very poor. Indeed
one can hardly fancy any but a poor race clinging to the cold and barren
fells and moors.
A vessel or vessels of earthenware are frequently found with inter-
ments, whether of burnt or unburnt bones. These vessels have been
divided into cinerary urns, ' incense cups,' ' food vessels ' and ' drink-
ing cups ' — a misleading nomenclature, but one which Canon Greenwell
considers it both difficult and undesirable to alter, particularly as we do
not know with absolute certainty what these vessels were originally
intended for. In Canon Greenwell's experience he finds the cinerary
urn and the ' incense cup ' accompany burnt bodies, while the ' food
vessel ' and the ' drinking cup ' accompany both burnt and unburnt
bodies, though he states it is rare to find the ' drinking cup ' with burnt
bodies.
The older antiquaries used to imagine that this pottery was sun-
dried ; that is not so. In that case damp would long ago have caused
the vessels to return to the original clay out of which they were formed.
They were baked before an open fire, whose smoke has often stained the
manufactured article in places. The clay of which the larger vessels is
made, is largely mixed with broken stone, with the object of making the
clay firmer and less Ukely to crack in the baking. Neither artificial
colour, nor glazing is ever employed, though most of the drinking
234
EARLY MAN
cups have a polish, probably produced by rubbing them with a smooth
stone or a bone. The general system of ornamentation consists of com-
binations of straight lines in an almost inconceivable variety.
The patterns have been made by a sharp-pointed instrument, drawn over the moist
clay ; by stamping vsrith a narrow piece of bone or hard wood, cut into alternate
raised and sunk squares, or simply notched ; by rows of dotted markings, round, oval
and triangular, of greater and less size ; by the impression of the finger-nails ; and
most commonly by impressions of a twisted thong, generally made of a strip of hide,
but certainly in many cases of string manufactured out of some vegetable fibre, and
consisting in some cases of two if not three plaits. Curved lines and circular markings,
though they occur now and then, are uncommon, the pattern being generally made up
of straight lines arranged in cross, zig-zag, chevron, saltire, reticulated and herring-bone
fashion {British Barrows, p. 65).
The cinerary urns are those vessels which contain a deposit of
burnt bones. The most common shape, indeed in Cumberland the
normal shape, is that of
two truncated cones, placed the one upon the other, the broadest parts in apposition,
the upper rather overlapping the lower, and being about half its depth. The mouth
is therefore contracted, and the upper cone constitutes the rim, which is overhanging.
. . . The bottom of the urn is small in comparison with its mouth, and is usually
not above one-third of its diameter {British Barrows, p. 65).
Cinerary urns of this form are of large size, ranging from 9 or
10, to 16 or 18 inches in height. Deviations from this form occur,
but mainly in the south of England, and are generally smaller and of a
finer clay. Those of the larger and more common form frequently
contain flint implements along with the calcined bones. Flint imple-
ments rarely occur with the smaller and more unusual forms, but articles
of bronze are occasionally found. Hence the conclusion is that the
vessels of the larger and more common form are the most ancient in date.
Their overhanging rim is available for securing by means of a cord a
cover of skin or cloth over the mouth of these vessels, which are not
infrequently found inverted and standing on a flat stone or piece of
slate. At other times they are found erect, with a flat stone or slate
covering the top : sometimes they are found in a cist of stone slabs.
Sevenal urns of this larger and more uncommon form were found
when the County Lunatic Asylum was built at Garlands, near Carlisle, in
the years i860 and 1861. This find consisted of cinerary urns, food
vessels, incense vessels, stone implements and a flint arrow-head. No
written or printed account of this interesting discovery exists : but the
architect, the late Mr. J. A. Cory, an able and skilful antiquary, had all
the objects found placed in a case and kept in the committee room at
the Asylum. They remained there for some years, but were removed to
the Museum in Carlisle, and are now in TuUie House, though it is
doubtful if they could be all identified.'^ Several urns, also of this type,
and full of calcined bones, were dug up in the year 1881 on Aughertree
Fell, near Ireby, by an enthusiast who worked at night by the light of a
* Personal information.
235
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
moderator lamp. They were ranged in a circle round the centre of a
tumulus. No stone or other implements, or flints, were found.^ The
ruins of these urns are now in the Museum in TuUie House, Carlisle.
Another urn of the same type was found by a ploughman in the neigh-
bourhood of Farlam, and is believed to be in private hands."
Several urns filled with ashes were found in the year 1775 on
Culgaith Moor in the parish of Kirkland. In 1784, on the same moor,
two entrenchments were discovered, about 10 yards asunder, each
covered over with earth, 6 or 8 inches in thickness : one of them was
circular, about 5 yards in diameter, and contained four urns standing .
upright, enclosing bones and ashes, the mouths of each covered with a
flat stone ; the other was nearly square and contained no urns.^
Urns containing ashes, skull, bones, etc., are said by Hutchinson,
writing in 1794, to have been found in a tumulus in the parish of
of Dalston known as the Toddle Hill. It was 40 yards in diameter,
and 7 yards high, and consisted of sand and gravel : it has been
entirely taken away for the reparation of the roads and for building
purposes.* An urn of this large and common type was found in the
great tumulus at Old Parks, Kirkoswald : it was full of burnt bones.
Fragments of other similar urns were found scattered about this tumulus.
Fragments of two cinerary urns of this type, with overhanging rim, were
found in December, 1890, in a cist in a gravel pit near Brackenhill
Tower, in the parish of Arthuret. The cist was standing nearly north
and south, and was about 3 feet long and divided into two compart-
ments. Unfortunately the urns and bones were broken before the
workmen understood the nature of the find. An urn with calcined bones
in it was found in 1 8 1 5 at Croglin, and is preserved in the Black Gate
Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne. The lower part is much broken, and
the upper part or neck is perpendicular, and has three heavy mouldings
round it. A sketch is in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Newcastk-on-'Tyne, vol. iii. p. 434.^
With some of these finds of cinerary urns, incense cups have been
found, as at Garlands, where four were found, now in TuUie House ; two
at Old Parks, Kirkoswald ; two at Loaden How, Skelton ; and two at
UUock. These ' incense cups ' are of rare occurrence, and are found
inside the sepulchral urns, placed in or upon the calcined bones. They
are diminutive in size, and vary from a little more than i inch in
diameter to about 4 inches, and from about i inch to about 3 inches
' See Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeeological Society,
vol. vi. p. 190 ; also personal information.
* Personal information.
' Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. i. p. 262 ; Jefferson's History of Leath Ward.
* Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. ii. pp. 444, 452 ; Whellan's History, vol. ii.
p. 162.
* In 1900 the tumulus at Grayson-lands, Glassonby, was opened. Inside a stone circle
was a cist, a deposit of charcoal, and a glass bead. Outside the circle, but under the tumulus,
was an urn, inverted, with burnt bones ; also a deposit of burnt bones without an urn.
{transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaological Society, vol. i. pp. 295-9, n.s.).
236
EARLY MAN
in height. The illustration, given with this section, of two found at
Old Parks, Kirkoswald, gives a good idea of a common form of incense
cup ; but there are numerous varieties. A singular thing is that they
are sometimes perforated with holes, and that their ornamentation is
continued over the bottom, as if they were meant to be viewed from
below. Hence some have considered that the holes were for passing
cords through for suspension, and that the incense cups were lamps, but
no trace of such use has been discovered upon any incense cup. Others
have suggested they were small urns to receive the ashes of infants,
sacrificed perhaps at the death of their mothers, so that the smaller urns
might be placed within those containing the ashes of their parents. But
Canon Greenwell has scarcely ever found bones placed within them
except accidentally. The Canon also dismisses as improbable the idea
that they were used for the purpose of fumigation, either to conceal the
odour of the burning body, or as part of a religious ceremony. He
regards as a probable suggestion that put forward by the Hon. W.
Stanley and Mr. Albert Way, viz.,
that they were ' chafers,' * for conveying fire, whether a small quantity of glowing
embers or some inflammable substance in which a latent spark might for awhile be
retained, such for instance as touchwood, fungus or the like, with which to kindle the
funeral fire {British Barrows, p. 8i).
The ' food vessels ' and the ' drinking cups ' appear to have been
the receptacles of some sort of provision for the departed in the new
world to which he or she was bound. The food vessels are found both
with burials by inhumation and after cremation, but more commonly
with burials by inhumation. They generally contain a substance or a
deposit, which analysis shows to be the remains of some animal or
vegetable matter. They vary in height from 3 to 8 inches according
to Canon Greenwell, but Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt says their average
height is from 4 to 6 inches. The Canon also says that they are more
diversified in shape than those of any other class. They occasionally
have little projecting knobs or ears on their shoulders, sometimes
pierced as for suspension by means of a string, sometimes mere
ornamental survivals. Sometimes they have feet, four in number, and
some have even been found with lids of pottery. Drinking vessels
vary in size from 5 to 10 inches ; there are two principal shapes ; the
bottom of both is more or less globular, in one class the upper part
widens to the mouth in a straight line, in the other in an easy curve.
The drinking cups are usually, according to Canon Greenwell, thin in
the walls, very neatly made of fine paste, and much better fired than any
other class of sepulchral pottery.
The recorded occurrences of food or drinking vessels in Cumberland
are very few ; food vessels were found with the burials after cremation of
the find at Garlands mentioned before. A cist with a skeleton in it and
an urn was found near Edmond Castle Lodge. ^ The urn was broken and
^ Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaological Society,
vol. vi. p. 470.
237
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
the pieces lost, so that it is uncertain to which class it belonged. Canon
Greenwell records a drinking cup, as found in a cist in the parish of
Castle Carrock, near Brampton ; the cist which contained it was found
accidentally, and the urn was broken up in order that each man working
in the field might have a piece. From some of these pieces the Canon
was able to make out its size, form and ornamentation. It was of the
second class of drinking cups just mentioned, about 7I inches high, and
5^ inches wide at the mouth.
It was ornamented with narrow encircling bands, defined by a grooved line on
each side of them, every fourth band having upon it short sloping lines, these being
arranged upon the bands alternately from right to left and from left to right {British
Barrows, p. 379).
The cist contained the body of an old man, laid on the left side, with
the head to north-east, having one arm extended and the other laid
across the chest. The drinking cup was behind the head.
As allusion has been made more than once to the tumulus at Old
Parks, in the parish of Kirkoswald, it may be desirable to give here a
detailed account of that tumulus, and of its exploration, particularly as
some features of singular interest were revealed. The mound or tumulus
was situated in a field on Sir Richard Musgrave's farm of Old Parks,
Kirkoswald, called ' Low Field,' a name which was taken by the few
who knew it to refer to the position of the field itself, and not to any
mound or burial place in it ; the mound, indeed, was by many supposed
to be a mere clearance heap, and it is probable that .it had in modern
times been used as such, which might account for the irregular outline.
It was sold in 1892 to the County Council of Cumberland for road
metal. The mound was roughly oval, with a longer diameter of 80 feet
and a shorter of 63 feet, the longer diameter running east and west. Its
height above the level of the adjacent ground was about 4 feet, and it
was somewhat depressed in the centre. A large tree grew a little within
the circumference of the mound on the south side. The work was
commenced in the autumn of 1892, and about 30 cartloads of stones
were removed from the extreme circumference of the mound on the
north side. During the removal an incense cup was found, also some
fragments of a large urn, and some bits of calcined bone. The tenant
of the farm, Mr. William Potter, C.C. for the Edenhall division of
Cumberland, immediately drew the attention of the present writer to
these discoveries. Some excavation was consequently made in the centre
of the mound, where a few large slabs of stone were lying about. A
large earthfast stone was exposed, which was taken to be part of a ruined
cist. On it a curious mark or grooving was observed. Two or three
vertebra and a fragment of a skull were found, none of them human. A
little charcoal and stones reddened by fire were also discovered. After
this the work of leading away the stones was suspended for a very
considerable time, until the autumn of 1893, when it was resumed under
the careful supervision of Mr. Potter, while photographs were taken
from time to time of the mound. Towards the end of 1893 ^ second
238
Fig. 1.
ii.
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EARLY MAN
incense cup was found, with twelve small beads of cannel coal inside it.^
By July, 1894, about 600 cartloads of stones had been removed, and the
site was virtually cleared, though a considerable heap of stones was still
remaining on the west, awaiting removal. The stones were mainly of a
local sandstone. The tree which grew within the circumference of the
mound was cut down and up-rooted during the clearance.
Running in a straight line from north to south across the central
portion of the cleared area, but not reaching to the boundary on either
side, were five slabs of rough stone, set in the natural surface of the
ground, but not very deep, forming a row 14 feet 9 inches long,
measured on the ground (see figs. i. and ii.). The following are their
dimensions, taking the most northerly stone to be No. i : —
Length along the ground
Height
Thickness
No. I.
No. 2.
No. 3.
No. 4.
No. 5.
1 ft. 8 in.
2 ft. 6 in.
2 ft. 7 in.
3 ft. 2 in.
3 ft. I in.
I ft. I in.
1 ft. 5 in.
2 ft.
I ft. 9 in.
I ft. 10 in.
4 in.
6 in.
8 in.
7 in.
Sin.
The height given for No. 5 is taken at its middle, but its southern
corner stands 2 ft. 4 in. above the ground, and it was this stone that was
taken in 1892 to be part of a ruined cist. Of these stones, Nos. 3 and 5
have artificial grooves and markings on their east sides (see figs. iii.
and iv.), and No. 4 on its west side (see fig. v). These markings
continue into the ground and show that they were upon the stones
before the stones were set in their present positions. But the freshness
of the pick or chisel marks in the grooves proves that these stones cannot
have been long exposed to weather. This row of stones thus indicates
division of the area of the mound or tumulus roughly into two halves,
semicircles, or, rather, semi-ovals.
In the western half of the area no less than thirty-two deposits of
burnt bones were discovered ; they were in holes scooped out of the
natural surface of the ground and in some cases were accompanied by
^ The question has been asked, ' Is the finding of these beads in the incense cup strictly
authenticated ? ' The following is Mr. Potter's reply : —
The Parks, Kirkoswald, Oct. 15, 1894.
Dear Mr. Ferguson, —
There is no doubt whatever about the twelve beads being found inside the larger incense
cup. I found the cup myself, and it was never out of my sight, and scarcely out of my hands,
until I took it home. It was my intention to send it on to you with its contents undisturbed,
but Mrs, Potter, with the curiosity of the sex, got to poking in it with a hairpin and dis-
covered some of the beads, and I then emptied it out and found the remainder.
Very truly yours,
WM. POTTER.
The beads were pronounced by Mr. J. G. Goodchild, F.G.S., F.Z.S., to be made of
cannel coal.
239
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
fragments of broken urns, and also by stones showing traces oi fire. The
first incense cup already mentioned (see figs. vi. and vii.) was found
near the north end of the line dividing the two semicircles or ovals (on
the continuation of the line of five earthfast stones) . The second and
much superior incense cup (see figs. viii. and ix.) was found a little
westward of the first, and in it were the twelve small beads (see fig. x.)
already alluded to. Near to where the second incense cup was found, a flat
stone covered one of the thirty-two interments, a protection that was not
accorded to others of them. These interments were dotted about the
area of the semi-oval, but mainly towards the circumference. Under the
roots of the tree, stated to have been growing on the south side of the
mound, a large burial urn was found, full of burnt bones. It is much
distorted by pressure, but was got out perfect, or nearly so. It stands
I foot 1 1 inches high, with a diameter of 5 inches at the bottom, and of
I foot I inch by 1 1 1 inches at the mouth, which has been distorted into
an oval. The ornamentation on it is rude and much worn. Fragments
of similar urns were found among the bones in some of the interments,
and also fragments of urns of smaller and thinner paste, being probably
of the class known as drinking cups.
The eastern half of the area contained no interments, but two large
excavations had been made into the original soil ; both ran east and
west, and much resembled modern graves. The larger was 8 feet 3 inches
long by 4 feet 9 inches wide and 4 feet 3 inches deep ; the other was
smaller, about the dimensions of an ordinary grave of the present day.
Both, when first discovered, were filled up with cobble stones, and in a
corner of the larger, under a flagstone, were some burnt bones and ashes.
It would seem that the excavations in the eastern half of the mound
must have contained burials by inhumation in an extended position, the
bodies lying east and west, and having long ago wholly disappeared ;
while the bones and ashes found there under a flagstone must have been
a secondary interment of later date. These two burials by inhumation,
4 feet deep below the original surface, must have been the original
interments over which the tumulus or low was raised. The question
arises. What is the date of the thirty-two interments by cremation in the
western half of the mound, and what is the meaning of the wall of
separation, and of the mysterious grooves and marks cut on the east side
of two of the stones, and on the west side of one of them ? One can
hardly imagine the interments after cremation to have been simultaneous
with the two by inhumation, unless there had been a wholesale slaughter
of slaves and dependents at the time of the inhumation. It would be
more probable that they were made subsequently, and at different times.
Dr. Thurnam {Archaologia, vol. xliii. pp. 328-31), gives instances of
central primary interments by inhumation with secondary interments
after cremation lying on or towards the circumference of the barrows
towards the south side, while the north is vacant, but in the instance
before us they lie towards the west, and the east is vacant. Many in-
stances of burial by inhumation, and of burial after cremation in the same
240
Fig. III.
Fig. V.
Tumulus at Old Parks : East SiDt
OF Stone No, 3.
fuMULUS AT Old Parks : West Side
OF Stone No. 4.
Fig. IV.
Tumulus at Old Parks : East Side of Stone No. 5.
Fig. V
Fig. VII.
Tumulus at Old Parks : Incense Cup
To face page 241.
EARLY MAN
tumulus, are given in Greenwell and RoUeston's British Barrows (pp. 7, 8)/
No pottery except what has been mentioned, no personal relics except
the twelve rude beads of cannel coal, were found to our knowledge, but
there might have been. The removal of the tumulus occupied, inter-
mittently, over two years, and was proceeded with at such chance times
as the work of a large farm and the weather left men and horses free.
Hence continuous scientific supervision was impossible ; but archaeologists
are much indebted to Mr. Potter for the care he took to record, secure,
and preserve everything.^
A granite monolith stands in the next field, 106 yards due west
from the circumference of the tumulus : it stands 4 feet 7 inches high,
and is 1 3 feet in circumference at the ground level ; no artificial mark-
ings have been found upon it.
Cup, Ring and Groove Markings
The occurrence of cup, ring and groove marked stones is not with-
out precedent in Cumberland. Indeed the first discovery of them was
made at Aspatria, in Cumberland, in the month of June, 1789, and is
reported by Major Hayman Rooke, in a letter dated December 17 in
that year, and read before the Society of Antiquaries of London,
February 4, 1790.^ The following is Major Rooke's account of the
circumstances of the find, which, be it observed, is not from personal
observation, but from information supplied to him by Mr. Rigg, the
proprietor of the land on which stood the barrow or tumulus, during
the opening of which the discovery was made. The Major had an in-
spection of the objects found and sketched them.
About two hundred yards north of the village, and just behind his house (Mr.
Rigg's), is a rising ground called Beacon Hill, on the summit of which the barrow was
placed, commanding an extensive view every way, and of course a very proper
situation for a beacon, which was probably erected on the barrow. In levelling this
(the base of which I foimd to have been 90 feet in circumference) they removed
six feet of earth to the natural soil, and about three feet below they found a vault
formed with two large cobble stones at each side, and one at each side (sic). In it
was the skeleton of a man which measured seven feet from the head to the ankle bone,
the feet were decayed and rotted oflF. The bones at first appeared perfect, but when
exposed to the air became very brittle. On the left side near the shoulder was a
broad sword near five feet in length ; the guard was elegantly ornamented with silver
flowers. On the right side lay a dirk or dagger, one foot six inches and a quarter in
length, the handle appeared to have been studded with gold. Near the dagger was
found part of a gold fibula or buckle, and an ornament for the end of a belt, a piece
of which adhered to it when first taken up . . . Several pieces of a shield were
picked up, but I did not see parts sufficient to make out the shape. There were also
part of a battle axe . . . a bit shaped like a modern snaffle, part of a spur.
These were very much corroded with rust. H and I are the two large cobble stones
• This account of the Kirkoswald tumulus is abbreviated from one by the present writer
in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaological Society,
vol. xiii. pp. 389-99.
* Archteologia, vol. x. pp. 105, III, 1 13 ; see also Hutchinson's History of Cumberland,
vol. ii. pp. 287, 288, note.
I 241 R
"..^-^
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
which inclosed the west side of the kistvaen, H is two feet eight inches in length,
I is three feet in length, and one foot eight inches high. On these stones are various
emblematic figures in rude sculpture, though some of the circles are exactly formed,
and the rims and crosses within them are cut in relief.
We reproduce, from Fergusson's Rude Stone Monuments, one of the
two side stones, so that their similarity to the stones at Old Parks is at
once seen. Major Rooke takes the circles upon the Aspatria stones to
be emblems of eter-
nity, and from the
circles and crosses he
concludes the inter-
ment to be that of a
person of rank after the
year a.d. 596, when
Christianity became
^ established in Britain.
^ We need not linger
to argue the question
with the Major's
shade : his theory will
hardly find a supporter at the present day.^ The relics, other than the
cobble stones, found at Aspatria, are such as one would expect to find
in a Northman's grave, and probably mark the interment as a result of
the settlement of Cumberland by the Northmen.^
The next recorded discovery of these cup and ring and other rock
markings in Cumberland was made by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson in 1835,
on the well known monolith Long Meg, where he found a concentric
circle with four rings around a cupped centre.^ At a later date Sir J. Y.
Simpson and Dr. Taylor visited Long Meg and found not one but several
concentric circles carved thereon.* The stone circle, so well known as
' Long Meg and her Daughters,' is situate in the parish of Addingham,
which is immediately to the south of Kirkoswald : Long Meg, as the
crow flies, can only be distant from the Old Parks tumulus about a mile
and a half.
About the same time that Sir James Simpson discovered the circles
on Long Meg, the Rev. Canon Simpson, formerly president of the
Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archsological Society,
found some ring cuttings on two boulders forming part of a circle of
eleven stones around a cist, situated a few hundred yards to the east of
Side Stone, Aspatria Cist.
^ The compiler of Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. ii. p. 288, note, asserts the
marks on the Aspatria stones to be 'magical numbers and figures, the work of ignorant
sorcerers and wicked wretches,' who inserted these things in the graves of bygone races in
order to secure the obedience of evil spirits that dwelt therein.
* Robert Ferguson's Northmen in Cumberland and Westmorland.
^ British Archaeological Journal, vol. xvi. pp. loi-iS, with illustration.
* ' On Ancient Sculpturings of Cups and Concentric Rings, by Sir J. Y. Simpson,
Proceedings S.J.S. 1st series, vol. vi. pp. 17, 18, with illustration; Transactions of the Cum-
berland and Westmorland Archaeological Society, vol. vi. p. ill,
242
Fig. IX.
Fig. VIII.
^^mmm^::-:^
^y
" .^^k,
4:>^^/;
irit'^'^^aB
IV-
i
N|B
<#W ^t4t *^^^^a^r
b::.
, ^^
WKK/f^'y
Tumulus at Old Parks : Incense Cup.
Fig. X.
Tumulus at Old Parks : Beads.
To face page 243.
EARLY MAN
Long Meg. This cist is in a field called Whins in the township of
Maughanby, hence this stone is called the Maughanby Stone.
The most remarkable cup-marked stone ever discovered in Cumber-
land or Westmorland was found in 1881 by Dr. M. W. Taylor, F.S.A.,
at Redhills, in the township of Stainton, in Cumberland, about two
miles from Penrith. It is a large slab of freestone, 5 feet 4 inches in
length by 3 feet 6 inches in width in the centre, and it varies from 8 to
13 inches in thickness. It is fully described by Dr. Taylor, who gives
an illustration.^ It formed the cover of a cist, which had contained an
interment after cremation. The markings upon it display four types :
(i) Cup-shaped hollows of various sizes and depths ; (2) Central
hollowed cones surrounded by two concentric circles, each bisected
by a radial groove ; (3) Hollowed channels like gutters running in
various directions ; (4) Little pits or small pick marks in the stone.
One of the monoliths known as the Giant's Grave, at Lacra,
in south-west Cumberland, has on it a well defined cup mark.^ Some
cup- and ring-marked stones were found at Maryport, in 1887, by Mr.
J. B. Bailey.*
We have thus brought together all the known instances of cup,
ring and groove markings in Cumberland. Two questions arise upon
them : What do they mean ? What is their date ? They are not
peculiar to this county. Dr. Anderson says : —
They are not confined to Scotland, or even to Britain. They are found in
Scandinavia, in France, in Germany and Switzerland. They appear on the Con-
tinent in associations which refer them to the Bronze Age at least, but they also occur
in associations which show that the custom survived to the late Iron Age, and even in
a modified form to Christian times.*
Sir James Simpson and Dr. Taylor would refer their commence-
ment at least to the late Stone Age. As to what they are, Dr. Anderson
in another passage says : —
They are one of the enigmas ot archaeology.
Canon Greenwell says : —
In many cases these markings occur upon rocks, but they have been very
frequently found upon detached stones of greater or less size, and in a large number of
instances . . . they are connected with burials after cremation ; sometimes
covering the deposit of bones, sometimes placed beneath it, and sometimes forming the
side or cover of a cist within which the bones were deposited. This connection with
burial, always a sacred rite, seems to bring them within the class of symbolic repre-
sentations ; in other words, suggests the notion that they are or may have been figures,
after a very rude and conventional manner, of some object embodying an idea that
involved the deepest and most esoteric principle of the religion held by these people,
* Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaological Society,
vol. vi. pp. 1 10-18 ; Proc.S.A.S. vol. xvi. p. 438.
* Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaological Society, vol. i. pp. 278-80.
* Ibid. vol. ix. pp. 435-8, where an illustration is given. One of the stones of the
Grayson-lands tumulus, Glassonby (see note, p. 236), is said, on good local authority, to have
been marked with concentric circles or a spiral (ibid, vol i. pp. 295-9? n.s.).
* Scotland in Pagan Times ; The Iron Age, p. 299.
243
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
The tau symbol of Egypt, the pine-cone of Assyria, the triangular-shaped stone of
India the cross of Christianity, outward expressions of that which has been in almost
every religion its most sacred belief, may well have been, however diflFerent in form,
yet the same in essence with these mysterious pits and circles.*
Cists
In the list already given of local barrows, tumuli, and cairns, past
and present, mention is made of cists. A cist is made of four or more
stones set on edge, with a cover, and is in fact a stone box or coffin,
which is not meant to be again opened, when once the body or bodies
for whose reception it was constructed, has or have been placed within.
Canon Greenwell suggests the word 'cist' should be strictly reserved
for such stone boxes, and not extended to large chambers intended to be
opened for future interments, and having frequently passages or galleries
leading into them from near the exterior of the mound (see British
Barrows, pp. 13, 479, etc.). Fergusson in his Rude Stone Monuments
(p. 43, and his Index sub voce Kist-Vaens) applied cist or kist-vaen to
both the stone boxes, and to the great galleried or passaged chambers.
Other writers do the same, and this is apt to lead to confusion. Nothing
has yet been found in the Cumberland district in the nature of a
chambered tumulus ; cists only have been found, but the long mound
at Harras, near Birdoswald, might contain a chamber. The people who
buried in these chambered mounds are an earlier race than those who
buried in cists.
Many barrows are fenced in or closed in some way or other ; thus
two of the long barrows at Latter-barrow, under Muncaster Fell, are
fenced in with large stones. There is (or was) a large tumulus of stones
in a field called ' Grazing Land ' on the estate of Mr. Rowley, not far
from the site of the tumulus at Old Parks, Kirkoswald. Standing upon
the top of this tumulus, one can trace a stone circle or fence a little
within the circumference of the mound. The suggestion may occur
that the intervals between the stones forming the circle were once built
up with loose stone walling, which has from time to time fallen and
formed a sort of stone apron or extension of the tumulus, outside of the
stone circle. It is, however, quite probable that the stone circle in this
instance was within the tumulus from the very first.^ In other cases the
fence or enclosure is a ditch. Thus the tumulus at Friar's Moor is
surrounded by a ditch, which is now partly interfered with by the
road.* The tumulus on Baronspike, or Barnspike, in Bewcastle, 24
* British Barrows, Greenwell and Rolleston, p. 343. For the general bibliography of
this subject the reader should consult ' Notes on some Stones with Cup-markings in Scotland,'
by J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A. Scot., in Proc. S.A.S., vol. xvi. pp. 79-143 ; also a paper
by W. Jolly, F.S.A. Scot., in the same volume, ' On Cup-marked Stones in the Neighbour-
hood of Inverness,' pp. 300-401 ; see also The Sculptured Rocks of Northumberland, by Geo.
Tate, Alnwick, 1865.
* The latter supposition was found to be correct when the tumulus was opened in 1 900
(see note and reference on p. 236).
* Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archtsological Society,
vol. iii. p. 248.
244
egr.
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SCAI.E OF FEET.
SCALE OF ORICINA
L PUAN , I INCH = aO FEET.
Stone Circle on Eskdale Moor.
T^o face page 24;.
EARLY MAN
paces in diameter, is surrounded by a trench 76 paces in circum-
ference.^ Many authorities suppose that all barrows and tumuli were
originally surrounded either by a ditch or by a stone circle. In the one
case the ditch in many, nay, in most instances, silts up and is obliterated
at a comparatively early date, leaving the earthen tumulus standing free,
if it has not all been washed into the ditch by rains. In the other case,
the earthen tumulus sometimes disappears under the influence of weather,
and the stone circle alone survives, thus accounting for the smaller stone
circles which occur here and elsewhere. The larger circles probably
surrounded groups of barrows ; or both large and small circles may have
surrounded burials or groups of burials over which no mounds had ever
been piled up. These enclosing circles, whether ditch or stone circle,
are often found within and hidden by the tumulus ; hidden or not
hidden, they are nearly always incomplete, as if a place of exit or
entrance had been purposely left. The idea of these surrounding fences
with exits or entrances is probably that of preventing the ghosts of the
dead from wandering about and doing mischief to the living.
Stone Circles
The principal stone circles in the Cumberland district are the one
known as ' Long Meg and her Daughters,' near Little Salkeld, in the
Parish of Addingham ; the Keswick Circle ; the Swinside Circle, near
Broughton ; and the Eskdale Circle situate on Burnmoor, near Wastwater.^
The last, though the finest, is only one of several similar remains on the
same moor, Burnmoor, which is a boggy elevated plateau. About 100
yards to the west of the Eskdale Circle, are two smaller rings in an im-
perfect state, each about 50 feet in diameter, and each inclosing one
barrow. A quarter of a mile west, on Low Longrigg, are two others :
one apparently perfect, about 50 feet in diameter ; the other imperfect,
with diameters of about 75 feet and 65 feet, and inclosing two barrows.
The Great, or Eskdale, Circle, for it seems to be known by that name, is a
single irregular circle of 41 stones, with a long diameter of 103 feet
west-north-west and east-south-east, and a short one of 95 feet north and
south. Only eight of the forty-one stones are now erect ; the others are
prostrate, and some are of very small size. A small erect stone or menhir
stands as an outlier to the north-west. The circle encloses five barrows,
each with a stone circle of its own round it. These barrows were
opened long ago, in 1866, and it is said that each of them was found
to contain a rude chamber formed of five stones, in which were found
remains of burnt bones, horns of stags and other animals.^ What may
^ Early Sculptured Crosses in the Diocese of Carlisle^ by the Rev. W. S. Calverley, edited by
W. G. Collingwood (Kendal : T. Wilson, 1890), p. 48.
^ Very detailed accounts of these four circles are given in the Transactions of the
Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaological Society, vol. v. pp. 40-57, by
C. W. Dymond, F.S.A. These Burnmoor circles are at the head of Miterdale, and the
Great or Eskdale Circle is rather more than a mile from the hamlet of Boot.
' Proc. S.A., o.s. vol. iii. p. 225 ; Fergusson's Rude Stone Monuments, pp. 159, 160.
Fergusson, gives a purely imaginary plan of the circle showring an outer circle of fourteen
245
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
be intended as a gateway is on the north-west opposite the small stand-
ing outlier or menhir, and points downhill.
The Swinside Circle, or Sunken Kirk, as it is called, is situate on
Swinside Fell in the Parish of Millom, and is most accessible from
Broughton-in-Furness in the neighbouring county of Lancashire. Its
average diameter is 92 feet, and the stones, when it was surveyed by Mr.
Dymond, numbered fifty-five, of which thirty-two were then standing,
and twenty- three were prostrate ; it is remarkable, that of the prostrate
stones, twenty-one have fallen inwards. A few stones have been removed,
but when the circle was perfect, the successive stones were nearly con-
tiguous. The stones are founded on a seating of small rammed stones
which extends around the whole of the ring and across the floor of the
gateway. The gateway is on the south-east side and points slightly down
hill. Mr. Dymond says : —
There is no record of any barrow having been observed within or near the Swinside
Circle. The ruins are those of a bold and carefiilly constructed peristalith. The
stones were ranged nearly in a true circle, well founded on a dry site in a rammed
stone bed, and placed, for the most part at least, in juxtaposition— often, indeed, so
close that it is possible there was no convenient access to the interior, save through
the gateway. Hence, in this case, a necessity for that feature, which was evidently
thought an important one, and must have been designed to give ceremonial access to
the sacred enclosure. Perhaps this is one of the best examples we have of a structure
which, according to our ideas, would be eminently suited to be a hypaethral temple :
and I suggest that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, this may have been the
chief purpose for which the Swinside Circle was erected.*
The best known and most often visited of the Cumberland mega-
lithic circles, is that which goes by the name of the Keswick Circle : this
arises from its proximity to the town of that name, and to its easy acces-
sibility compared with the Eskdale and Swinside circles. -It is situate
on an eminence known as Castlerigg, and is much resorted to by tourists
from various lands. Many printed accounts of it exist, commencing
with one by Stukeley in 1725, and continuing to the Lake guide books
of to-day.^ These accounts contain many discrepancies, particularly as
to the number of stones ; but one fact comes out, namely, that in 1769
Castlerigg was sown with corn^ This is confirmed by an oil painting of
the 1 8th or early 19th century, at Mirehouse, the seat of the Speddings,
which shows Castlerigg, including the interior of the circle, covered with
a fine and ripe crop of corn. Anything that may be now pointed out,
either within the area of the circle or near it, as a barrow or ring-
barrow, must be of recent origin. The stones, like those of the Swinside
stones, which does not exist, and never did ; it also shows an inclosure of stones round the
easternmost barrow. The same remark applies to this. From the remote position of this
circle the suggested outer circle and barrow enclosure are not likely to have been wantonly
removed, and Mr. Dymond in 1872 and 1877 could find no trace of them, though he
carefully probed for the barrow enclosure.
* Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaological Society,
vol. V. pp. 56, 57.
^ These accounts have been collected by Mr. Dymond (ibid. vol. v. pp. 50-5).
» Gray's Works, vol. ii. ' Letter to Dr. Wharton,' p. 332, cited by Mr. Dymond, ut ante.
246
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To face fa^e 246.
EARLY MAN
Circle, are set on a ring-bed of small rubble. The peristalith is an ir-
regular oval, or rather a pear-shaped figure, the longest diameter being
107 feet and the shortest 96 feet 8 inches. The number of stones re-
maining in the peristalith at the time of Mr. Dymond's survey in 1877
was thirty-eight, of which thirty-three were erect and five prostrate.
The gateway is at the north. There is a rectangular enclosure within
the circle on its east side, formed by ten more stones (eight erect and
two prostrate), making the total number of stones altogether forty-eight.
Within the area of the peristalith is a shallow circular trench 1 3 feet in
diameter, which looks like the remains of a barrow, and might be such
but for the ploughing to which the area has been subjected. It has been
conjectured by several that this circle was a temple, and that the
enclosure on the east side was the most sacred place, the holy of holies to
which only the priests had admission, the chancel, as it were. Possibly
it merely protected the barrow of some greater man than usual. Some
excavation was made in 1882 in the interior of this enclosure. A trench,
18 to 19 feet long was opened in it, having a breadth of 3 feet 3 inches,
with two cross cuts of about 2 feet. The following is the report made
by Mr. W. Kinsey Dover, who superintended the work : —
Depth of dark superficial soil to where the yellow undisturbed soil appears, 14
inches, with the exception of a small portion at the west end, where the black soil
mixed with stones continued to a depth of 3 feet. Near the bottom here I found
what I think to be a few small pieces of burned wood or charcoal, also some dark
unctuous sort of earth.^
The stone circle with external menhir, called ' Long Meg and her
Daughters,' although less visited than the Keswick Circle is probably
more famous. Its name is attractive, and many writers, commencing
with Camden, who made a survey of Cumberland in 1599, have written
accounts of it. Like those of the Keswick Circle these have many
discrepancies.*
The peristalith is irregular, with a longer diameter of 360 feet east
and west, and a shorter one of 305 feet north and south. The number
■^f stones in it, excluding one or two fragments, is sixty-eight, of which
twenty-seven are erect. Long Meg herself, who stands to the south-
west, about 60 feet outside of the ring of her hard-featured daughters,
makes the number of stones up to sixty-nine. A gateway or rudimentary
avenue intercepts the peristalith in the direction of the menhir, which
is a monolith of hard red sandstone, 12 feet high by 3 feet 6 inches
broad, and the same thick. The cup and ring markings upon Long
Meg have already been mentioned, ante p. 243. There are traces of a
ring embankment, from 10 feet to 14 feet broad, and now at the most
but a few inches high. This is most apparent in the western half.
Two large tumuli, or barrows, or cairns of cobble stones, were
formerly within the great circle, and if they were not mere clearance
^ Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaological Society,
vol. vi. p. 505.
* These accounts have been collected by Mr. Dymond (ibid. vol. v. pp. 40-7).
247
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
heaps, show that it protected burials, probably similar to those under the
tumulus at Old Parks, Kirkoswald. They have long ago disappeared
under the advance of cultivation. It should be mentioned that Long
Meg stands upon the highest part of the site, and that the road through
the entrance is therefore uphill. At Swinside and Keswick the road goes
downhill.
A few hundred yards to the east of Long Meg, in a field called
Whins, is a cist, which has been mentioned before, ante p. 243. This
formerly had a mound of earth over it, and is within a circle of eleven
stones, on two of which are ring cuttings : one of them is known as the
Maughanby Stone.
The county histories, all copying Nicolson and Burn, published in
1777, say there was on a fell called King Harry, in the parish of Cum-
whitton, seven miles south-east of Carlisle, and seven miles north-west of
Kirkoswald, a stone circle, with external menhir, consisting of about
eighty-eight stones in an exact circle, 52 yards in diameter. None of
the stones were above 4 or 5 feet high. This circle was known as ' The
Greys Yauds ' or ' Grey Horses,' and was almost wholly destroyed when
the common was enclosed, the stones being utilized for building walls.^
In a field called Yamonside, on the left bank of the Eamont, nearly
due south of Fluskew Hill in the parish of Dacre, Dr. M. W. Taylor
traced the remains of four concentric stone circles with a central menhir.
The innermost circle is formed of twelve or thirteen stones, and has a
diameter of 60 feet ; the next of nine stones, with a diameter of 90
feet ; the third of eighteen or twenty stones and a diameter of 1 20 feet ;
and the outermost of thirteen or fourteen stones and a diameter of 156
feet or thereabouts. The stones, from Dr. Taylor's account, seem to be
grown over with grass and earth ; he calls them ' buried,' and he had
to probe for them ; it may be that Yamonside is merely a field, covered
with boulders, great quantities of which were removed from the next
field in 1866. Dr. Taylor's account was written in 1868.*
There was once, according to the county histories, a stone circle,
80 feet in diameter, at a place called Chapel Flat, in the parish of Dalston.
Near it was a tumulus 9 feet high and 24 feet in diameter. These have
disappeared. A stone circle, near Stockhow Hall in the parish of
Lamplugh, called Standing Stones, was destroyed by blasting, in the first
half of the nineteenth century, for the purpose of making fences. Only six
large stones of the northern segment remained in 1842. A stone circle
near Motherby, in the parish of Greystoke, about 50 feet in diameter,
was blasted away by order of the steward of the Duke of Norfolk in the
first half of the 19th century. Another stone circle formerly existed
near Seascale Hall, and a dubious second and still more doubtful third
are said to have existed in the Keswick district. One of these is said to
have consisted of twelve stones, none above 2 feet high, and to have
^ Nicolson and Burn, ii. p. 495 ; and Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland
Antiquarian and Archesological Society, vol. vi. p. 468.
* Ibid. vol. i. pp. 154, 167, 168.
248
N
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SCALE OF FEET.
SCALE OF ORIGINAL PLAN, I INCH=50FKET.
Surfj^y^ bffC.fr.Dynioiid.C.E.,ai'iS^f,tK i87S.
Stone Circle and Menhir called 'Long Meg and her Daughters'
NEAR Little Salkeld.
I0 face page 248.
EARLY MAN
been on a hill near the further end (from Keswick) of Bassenthwaite
Lake.^ Another vanished circle once existed near Ullock in the parish
of Dean, and on Dean Common, near Studfold Gate, are the remains of
another. Stone circles exist, or rather have existed, at Annaside, at
Gutterby, Kirkstones (two circles), and at Standing Stones, near Hall Foss
or Force, all in the parish of Whitbeck. Many more in Cumberland
must have perished unrecorded.
Rings, Mounds and Cairns
Some of the circular enclosures of earth which occur in the dis-
trict are connected with the stone circles by the fact that they protected
burials. Thus Mr. Hayman Rooke found on Broadfield, in Inglewood
Forest, a circular enclosure of earth, 63 feet in diameter, within which
was a stone circle. Excavation disclosed three small stone cists containing
interments after cremation. It may be noted that the continuity of the
earthen circle was incomplete, an entrance being left.^ Three small
circles of earth, now destroyed, on the common at Kirkandrews-on-Eden,
with diameters respectively of 5, 7 and 9 yards, protecting low barrows
with urns, no doubt cinerary urns, were found about 1780.^
But every circular enclosure of earth must not be assumed to be a
place of burial ; some large ones appear to have been cattle kraals,
probably mediasval, for defence against wolves. On the other hand, the
stone circles, large and small, seem to be primarily burial places, but
some of the larger may have also been hypsthral temples, or perhaps
places for tribal palavers.
So far we have been dealing almost wholly with the burial places
(real or supposed) of the early inhabitants of the district, and with the
pottery and other objects found in those graves. That pottery is in its
character funereal, or made for the purpose of being used with interments.
Of the domestic pottery of corresponding date we know, so far as the
Cumberland district is concerned, little or nothing ; nothing that can be
identified as a specimen of such pottery exists in any of the local
museums. It can only be under very remarkable circumstances that an
unbroken specimen could survive from so remote an era. Fragments
must exist somewhere, for fragments of fire-baked pottery are indestruc-
tible, but they have not been locally recognized. The collection of local
pottery in TuUie House, Carlisle, possesses no example, not even a
recognized fragment, of domestic pottery earlier than Roman and late
Celtic (often called Romano-British). A few beads and other trifling
articles have been found in the graves of these people, and their
weapons of stone and bronze have occurred in various places in the dis-
' The circle here referred to is situated on Elva Plain on the ridge separating the vales
of Embleton and Derwent about a mile from Ouse bridge, the outlet of Bassenthwaite. It
consists of fifteen stones and is about 105 paces in circumference. — ^J. W.
^ Archesologiay vol. x. pp. 1 06-10.
^ Hutchinson's iifw^sry of Cumberland,vo\. ii. pp. 521-22 ; Whellan's History of Cumber-
land, p. 170.
249
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
trict ; but of their homes and the Ufe they led we know but little. For
that little the curious must refer to writers who deal with broader areas
than the district with which this book concerns itself^ But those who
do so must bear in mind that the inhabitants of this district would be
more barbarous than those of southern and eastern parts of Britain,
where the Belgic immigrants from comparatively civilized Gaul exercised
a considerable influence.
Other remains there are in the districts — traces of what may have
been the dweUing-places of these prehistoric people ; these it is difficult
to assign to their proper period, for race after race would successively
seize on the same spots for their dwellings. No doubt the round-headed
man with the bronze weapons, after enslaving the long-headed man and
appropriating his women, would not hesitate to steal his home. At
Barnscar, near Devock Water on Birkby Fell, in the parish of Muncaster,
are the remains of an extensive settlement, consisting of: (i) The ruins
of a group of small inclosures and hut circles, situated at the extreme
west end of the settlement ; (2) sundry banks and works ranging for the
most part nearly parallel with the ridge occupied by the settlement ;
(3) a multitude of cairns scattered irregularly over the ground east of the
village. These cairns in round numbers are about 400. About the
year 1890, Lord Muncaster, to whom the property belongs, cut a few
trenches, examined some of the huts in the villages, and dug into a few
of the cairns. In these were found, in an inverted position, several small
cinerary urns, full of ashes, and of the type mentioned earlier in this
section, and also some fragments of pottery, which do not seem to have
been preserved. Further investigation was abandoned owing to the
reluctance of the local peasants to dig among the cairns and disturb the
ashes of the dead. Enough, however, was found to connect the settle-
ment with prehistoric people who buried after cremation.^ Similar
remains — and for the most part apparently of the same age — are scattered
over the fells in the vicinity. Another similar settlement is to the south-
east of Threlkeld railway station (near Keswick), between Threlkeld
Knot and the old mountain road to Matterdale. Attention was drawn to
this settlement by the late Mr. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., who pronounced it
to be the ruins of a prehistoric settlement, and pointed out that many
of the cairns or heaps of stones were such as would be formed by the
collapse of a domed or beehive-shaped hut of stones,* In an appendix to
this section a list will be found of similar settlements in Cumberland,
made by the late Mr. Clifton Ward. In the neighbourhood of Castle
Carrock near Brampton, on an outlying spur of the great fell, are some
circular excavations, which the late Mr. Rome Hall, F.S.A., considered
to be pit dwellings, similar to those described by Professor Phillips as
^ See Boyd Dawkins on Early Man in Britain^ Sir John Lubbock on Prehistoric Times,
and the other books mentioned in this section.
* A detailed account of this settlement by Mr. C. W. Dymond, F.S.A., is in the
Transactions of the Cumberland and JVestmorland Antiquarian and Archaohgical Society, vol. xii.
pp. 179-87. 8 Ibid, ut ante, vol. iii. pp. 247, 248.
250
^, m
% »
To face page 250,
EARLY MAN
existing in Yorkshire, and by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in Wiltshire/
habitations of a type anterior to those on Birkby Fell. One or two of
these circular excavations on Castle Carrock have been partially explored,
but they yielded nothing. As the geological formation is limestone,
these supposed pit dwellings may be mere swallow holes. Some have
imagined they had found circular pit dwellings upon Caldbeck Fell, but
an ancient of the place said they were old trial holes for surface coal. It
would be satisfactory to clear out some of these circular excavations,
and to search in their vicinity for the kitchen-middens.
With the arrival of the Romans the prehistoric era ends, and the
historic period commences, but the histories give us very little informa-
tion as to the people the Romans found in possession.
The Roman historians tell us of the skill of the Britons in the art
of enamelling. This is evidenced by a remarkable sword found at
Embleton, near Cockermouth. It was in a sheath ornamented with
enamels of various colours. Sir John Evans, K.C.B., assigns it to a date
not far from the Roman invasion.^ A fine bronze beaded torque found
in Carlisle was also assigned by Sir John to the late Celtic age.
It has been stated that this prehistoric people — the men with the
long heads and the men with the round heads — saw this district in its
chief features much as we see it now. But there were differences. The
country was mainly forest, resembling the uncleared forests of Canada
and America, and covered with dense scrub of oak, ash, thorn, hazel and
birch. At Alston and other places the stools of ancient hazel and birch
trees are found beneath the peat. The antlers of red deer of much larger
size than of the present day have been found with Roman remains in
frequent numbers, showing that the deer must have had abundance of
' brooze ' or scrub for their support, extending over a great range of
country. The valleys were swamps, and the alluvial flats bordering on
the Solway and stretching eastwards from RockclifFe along the north to
Carlisle, for many miles were vast morasses, now dwindled into the puny
survivals of Solway Moss, Bowness Moss, Wedholm Flow and Scaleby
Moss. Edmund Sandford, who wrote in the time of Charles II. a
gossiping account of the country, printed and published in i8go, tells us
that great part of the country was even then forest. In prehistoric
times the higher hill tops probably stood up bare and naked. The
climate was cold and wet. The crops ripened but slowly.
The following is a list of prehistoric settlements in Cumberland,
compiled by the late Mr. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., of the Ordnance Survey.
The figures refer to the sheets of the 6-inch Ordnance Map on which
-the remains are, and the letters to the quarters of the sheets. The list
first appeared in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland
1 Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaological Society,
vol. vi. pp. 462, 463 ; Yorkshire, by Phillips, 2nd edit., p. 203 ; see Wright's The Celt,
the Roman, and the Saxon (1852), chap. ii. p. 87.
* Archaological Journal, vol. xxxix. p. 442 ; ibid. p. 442 ; Transactions of the Cumberland
and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaological Society.
251
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Antiquarian and Archoeological Society, vol. iii. pp. 241, 243, and has been
more than once reprinted.
Weasel Hills and West Fells . . 48 N.W.
Stone Carr 57 N.E. and S.E.
Above Falcon Crag 64 S.W.
Threlkeld 65 N.W.
N. banks of Ennerdale . ... 68 S.E.
Ennerdale, banks of Liza ... 69 S.W.
Thirlmere, Deergarth Wood . . 70 N.E.
Tongue How 73 N.W.
Boat How 73 N.W.
Cawfell Beck 73 N.W.
Stockdale Moor 73 S.E.
Valley of the Bleng 73 S.E.
Gray Borran 73 S.E.
Greendale 79 N.W.
Burnmoor 79 N.W.
E. of Raven Crag 83 N.W.
Around Devoke Water ... 83 N.W.
Ulpha Fell 83 N.E.
Barnscar 83 S.W.
Knott 83 S.W.
Brown Rigg 83 S.E.
Mr. Ward also gives a list of round or oval camps, among which he
takes the following to be in all likelihood British, that is, prehistoric : —
Carrock Fell 48
The Fort, Fitz Wood . . . . 54
Castle How, Peel Wyke ... 55
Castle Crag, Shoulthwaite Glen . 64
S.W. Maiden Castle 66 N.W.
N.E. Dunmallard Hill 66 N.W.
N.E. Maiden Castle 79 N.E.
S.E.
A survey of the eastern and northern fells would probably add to
the list.
252
REMAINS OF THE
PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
IN the long period of nearly seven centuries between the leaving of
the Romans and the settlement of the Normans, Cumberland was
the home of three successive ruling races. For the first two and
a half centuries the Romano-Britons, Cymru, or Cumbri held the
land ; but though they gave it their name (Cumbra-land) and continued
to form a great part of the population after they had lost their power,
we have but scanty records of their history as a people, and very few
relics of the age of their independence. About 670-80 the Angles of
Northumbria overcame them and settled among them, remaining the
dominant race for a little over two centuries ; their history is almost as
scanty, but we have some tokens of their arts and industries to show.
In 876 the Danes burnt Carlisle, and for more than two centuries follow-
ing they and a mixed multitude of Celto-Scandinavians, Vikings from
Ireland and the Isles, continued to settle in Cumberland as masters of the
soil, they too leaving us little in written history, but not a few works of
art showing their presence and influence.
The remains of the whole post-Roman, pre-Norman age fall into
three classes — sculptured stones with their inscriptions, metal-work, and
earthworks or ruins of rude building hardly to be reckoned as architec-
ture. The few pieces of architecture which have sometimes been ascribed
to ' Saxon times ' will be noticed later on in the course of this work ;
but even at a period when there was probably no true building in
stone — when the forts were stockades and the churches and dwelling-
houses were built of wood or wattle-and-daub — it was the custom to set
up carved stones as memorials of the dead. The art of carving in stone
lingered on in Britain from the Roman age, sometimes falling into great
debasement, but more than once reviving under foreign influence. It
seems to have been kept alive during this period and in this part of the
country entirely for the purpose of grave-monuments, and it implied no
skill in architecture or literature ; it was a traditional art by itself,
influenced perhaps by metal-working and wood-carving, and to a small
extent possibly by the ornament of illuminated manuscripts, but only as
it reflected current fashions in decorative design. For that reason the
253
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
execution is generally poor, as sculpture ; but its feeling often makes it
picturesque, and the quaint conceits which the artists tried to embody
make it often highly interesting.
Sculptured Stones : Celtic Period
The sculpture of the Britons before the time when Christianity
brought new life to art from Italian source?, through the converted
Anglo-Saxons, is thought to have been mainly or altogether incised —
that is to say, not carved in relief, but
sketched in grooves and scratches on the
stone. It would not be safe to say that all
incised stones are pre-Saxon, or we should
be able to point to one slab as an evidence
of a Christian church at Aspatria before
680 A.D. Still this Aspatria slab, now in
two fragments walled into the vestry of the
church, bears some resemblance to early
Welsh monuments, such as the well-known
stone of Macutrenus in the British Museum;
but it is more like a series of incised monu-
ments of which the age is doubtful, such
as the shaft at Ecclesfield near Leeds, the
stones at Adel near Leeds, the cross at
Lanivet (Cornwall), and especially a slab
from Gillespie (Glenluce) now in the
Edinburgh Antiquarian Museum. Incised
stones of much later than our pre-Saxon
date are found in Scandinavia, and the
svastika or fylfot on the Aspatria slab
might be thought to connect it with
eleventh century Scandinavian influence ;
but the svastika was used in Britain at all
periods, and the Scandinavian stone, for
example, at Rosas, Njudingen, Sweden,
figured by Stephens in Old-Northern Runic
Monuments, resembles this only in rudeness.
The group of British incised stones just mentioned seems to be con-
nected with a type which is certainly pre-Saxon, though the date must
be left undecided. We have no other stones at present known in
Cumberland of this type, and no other sculpture which can be safely
pointed out as a relic of the church of St. Kentigern and the indepen-
dent Cumbri.
Incised Slab, Aspatria.
Anglian
The Bewcastle cross is our finest pre-Norman monument in Cum-
berland, and judging by its art and inscription it is the oldest, The
254
The Christ, on Bewcastle Cross.
Bewcastle Cross.
To face p. 155,
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
inscription will be considered later on with other inscriptions ; here we
are concerned only with the style and execution of the monuments,
classed together according to their resemblance to one another and to
well-known types outside the county. The Bewcastle cross is a square
pillar of grey freestone from the moors above the valley ; it is 14I feet
in height above the pedestal, 21 by 22 inches thick at the base, tapering
to 13 by 1 4 inches at the top, from which the cross-head is lost. A
written note in a copy of Camden's Britannia in the Bodleian records that
a cross-head from ' Bucastle ' was sent to the writer from Lord William
(Howard), the antiquarian owner of Naworth Castle, so that the head
has been missing only since the days of Queen Elizabeth. With it the
cross would have been about 21 feet high from the base of the pedestal,
a block weighing about 6 tons, into which the cross was anciently fixed
with lead. In 1891 some repairs were done to the pedestal ; otherwise
the cross is unrestored. It is said that damage has been done at different
times to the carving and the inscription, but the stone is extremely hard
and the design is nearly perfect.
On the west face are three panels with figures : at the top St. John
the Baptist carrying the Lamb of God ; in the middle Christ standing
on the heads of swine, a fine figure in long robes, carrying in His left
hand a scroll, the Book of Remembrance, and raising His right hand in
blessing ; His head is youthful and slightly bearded, unlike the ordinary
medieval type of the suffering Redeemer. Below is the figure of a man
in a tunic and hood, carrying a stick or spear and lifting a hawk from its
perch. It is a naturalistic figure, evidently meant for a portrait of some
contemporary, probably the person to whom the monument was set up,
who is said in the inscription to have been king Alchfrith. It cannot
represent St. John with the eagle, who would have been dressed in flow-
ing robes and posed in some such dignified way as St. John the Baptist
above. The theory that only Scriptural or symbolic subjects were repre-
sented on these monuments is disproved by several of the stones we shall
pass in review, and the custom of portraiture on Christian tombs was
common in all ages.
On the north face are two panels of symmetrical interlacing ; two
of foliage and fruits, the conventional vine-scroll of the earliest Italo-
Greek Christian art; and a central panel of chequers, which, though they
have been taken as indicating a late date, are seen also in slightly different
pattern on the cross at Irton.
The east face has one continuous vine-scroll, with animals in the
branches — the ' fox that spoils the vines,' two squirrels and two birds.
The south face has three symmetrical interlacings and two panels of
foliage, the upper one having a dial worked into the design. This dial
is a semicircle with hole for the gnomon now lost, and rays marking
twelve divisions between sunrise and sunset. It is certainly a part of the
original monument, and such a dial at Kirkdale (Yorkshire) is proved to
be Anglo-Saxon by its inscription ; there is no reason to suppose that
people in the seventh century were ignorant of this ancient contrivance for
255
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
marking time. In Cumberland, dials of a similar kind, carved on the
flat surface of a wall with south aspect, and so rudely done that they
must have been very insufficient for any but the roughest calculations, are
found at Caldbeck, Torpenhow, Great Salkeld, Kirkoswald, and Newton
Arlosh churches, and two at Dearham and four at Isel. The late Rev.
W. S. Calverley, F.S.A., whose researches have added so much to our
knowledge of pre-Norman art in Cumberland, thought that all these dials
were pre-Norman in date, and that where they are found in mediaeval
walls they had been removed from Anglo-Saxon churches and rebuilt into
later work ; but it would be safer to say that they are pre-Norman only
in type, not in date.
It has been held by good authorities of the last generation that the
Bewcastle cross should be dated tenth or eleventh century because the
ornament resembles Carlovingian art ; but the general opinion in more
Anglian Shaft, Addingham,
Fragment, Workington.
recent times ^ is in favour of an earlier age and an influence from Ravenna
and other north Italian towns through St. Wilfrith, who is known to
have brought foreign artists into the north of England. It has even
been claimed as one of the works of the Maestri Comacini, but this is not
proved. It can however be classed with many other works done in the
flush of the great renaissance of the late seventh century, in which Bene-
dict Biscop and St. Wilfrith were leaders, and king Alchfrith and his
1 Prof. G. Stephens, OU-'Northern Runic Monuments ; Dr. Sophus MtlUer, Aarb. f. Nord. Oldk. og
Hist. (1880) ; the Rev.W. S. CAvtrlty, Early Sculptured Crosses of the Diocese of Carlisle (1899) ; Wilhelm
Victor, Die Northumbrischen Runensteine (1895) ; the Bishop of Bristol (Right Rev. G. F. Browne), The
Conversion of the Heptarchy (1896), are among the writers who have discussed the subject.
256
I-
o
>
y
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
wife Cyniburg, and her sister and brother, Cyneswitha and king Wulf-
here of Mercia (all named on this cross) were chief patrons. It is not
of the Hexham school, but of a school of that age and character, from
which came many fine works quite alien in spirit to the art of north
England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and impossible to have been
executed in that period of storm and stress, when the churches were
ravaged by the Danes ; and it is equally impossible to class it as Norman.
The archjeological evidence is all
in favour of the date assigned to it
by the inscription — the first year
of king Ecgfrith, 670—71 a.d. ;
and it has a great importance in
the history of art as the starting-
point from which not only all our
Cumbrian sculpture was derived,
but (with Ruthwell cross, its
younger sister) the model for
much of that so-called Hiberno-
Saxon art which has been confused
with it.
At Addingham church, in
the porch, are preserved two red
sandstone fragments of an Anglian
cross, nearly equal in fineness of
design and skill of workmanship
to that at Bewcastle. At St.
Michael's, Workington, is a frag-
ment with a symmetrical floral
design, not now very distinct, and
a key-pattern beneath it, and on
the edges carefully drawn inter-
laced work ending in a flattened
loop like that at Addingham. In
the same church at Workington
is the beautiful fragment found in
the tower by Mr. W. L. Fletcher
after the fire of 1887, with the
best kind of Anglian interlacing
on all its four sides, but neither
floral scroll-work, nor figures, nor
key-patterns ; this, from the symmetry and execution of its ornament,
seems to rank with good Anglian w^ork, though it shows what the late
Canon Knowles called ' the ear -shaped guilloche ' and thought to be
a mark of later Scandinavian influence. At Waberthwaite church, in
the vestry, is part of an Anglian shaft with a good symmetrical inter-
lacing on one side and a leaf-scroll on the other, without the fruit seen
at Bewcastle and Addingham.
I 257 s
Anglian Shaft, Waberthwaite.
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
This last site is interesting as being close to the ancient harbour
of Ravenglass ; and just on the other side of the harbour at Irton is
a famous cross in the churchyard, which in spite of some features
usually put down as Celtic, or Hiberno-Saxon, must be classed as an
Anglian work. The Irton cross is carved from a single block of red
sandstone, head and shaft in one piece, lo feet high from the pedestal.
The carving has been all done with the chisel, without drill or pick,
and is smooth, highly-finished work, very varied in depth. The parts
where the pattern runs closely together are kept shallow and flattish ;
here and there a few emphatic points are deeply hollowed, giving
strong touches of shade and throwing the flatter parts into breadth
and delicacy. On the panel now blank are said to have been Anglian
runes (described under the heading of Inscriptions) ; above the panel is
a symmetrical interlacing, and below it is a very elaborate symmetrical
double strand interlaced. The edges bear fine scrolls of fruit, leaves
and flowers, in the best style of Anglian art, and quite foreign to Irish
and Scandinavian work. The east side has two panels of diagonal key-
pattern, hke the fragment at Workington, and two panels of geometrical
' kaleidoscope ' design ; at the top is a panel of chequers, like that at
Bewcastle, except that they are little X -shaped depressions instead of
squares. The head has on one side a boss and ring surrounded by
fifteen smaller bosses, and on the other side five small bosses arranged
in a cross surrounded by a ring and framed with interlacing. A curious
incised plait is on the ends of the cross-arms, which are free and not
joined by a wheel ; it is like the head of Ruthwell cross, which (though
now restored) can never have been a wheel-cross. Bewcastle and other
Anglian crosses had probably free-armed heads, of which many still
remain in Cumberland and the rest of northern England.
Anglian and Cumbrian Cross-heads
Two good examples of these free-armed Anglian heads are at
Carlisle. One, represented only by the arms and centre from which the
shaft and uppermost limb have been broken, is in the Fratry, and was
found in digging the foundations of a house in the Abbey in 1857. It
has square-ended interlacements on the ends of the arms like the Adding-
ham and Workington fragments, and a six-petalled boss, with Anglian
inscriptions on the arms. The other, represented only by the tips of the
lateral arms, has angular interlacements at the arm-ends, a rather debased
but still Anglian floral scroll on one face, and a device which is nearly
what may be called the ' lorgnette ' pattern, surrounded with zigzags on
the other face ; this was found about 1888 in making alterations at the
Bishop of Barrow's house in the abbey.
The ' lorgnette ' is represented in its full form in the head found
in 1855, and preserved in the room over St. Catherine's chapel in the
cathedral. There is the usual boss in the centre of the head with a
ring round it, making it somewhat like a magnifying glass ; and on each
258
lijUt
-■mm
■'■>
'4
Irton Cross.
To face page 258.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
of the arms is a similar but smaller feature attached to the central boss by
a rib or spine. The topmost arm of the head, instead of being merely
enlarged by the graceful curve at the ' arm-pits,' as in the other two Car-
Fratry, Carlisle.
Abbey, Carlisle.
Cathedral, Carlisle.
lisle heads, Irton and Ruthwell crosses, and many others (by no means an
exclusively Celtic form), in this case becomes a ' hammer-head.' There
are two reasons for considering it Anglian : one that it resembles the
Abbey head which has Anglian floral work, and the other that Carlisle,
as a home of Christian population among whom such work could have
been done, came to an end in 876, and therefore these crosses must be
earlier than the Scandinavian period, while they are certainly not pre-
Saxon.
Now these Carlisle cross-heads give us the key to a great series of
Cumbrian art for which they, or others like them now destroyed, served
as models. From Carlisle westward to Beckermet, and south-eastward to
Addingham, there are cross-heads evidently degenerated from these well-
executed types. At Bromfield is a white sandstone hammer-headed cross,
with perhaps a much-worn ' lorgnette ' in the
topmost arm. At Distington is another without
any ' lorgnette.' At Brigham is a white ' ham-
merhead ' in which the ' lorgnette ' is replaced by
a small incised Latin cross ; and at Kirkoswald,
known by other finds as an Anglian site, is the
tip of a red sandstone head with a combined -f-
and X in a circle. At Cross Canonby is a
broken white head with ' lorgnettes ' ; another at
Bridekirk has the rest of the space filled with
wandering spirals in relief. At Distington
another white fragment has the spirals without
the ' lorgnette,' and a third has remains of interlacing. Finally, at
Dearham and St. John's, Beckermet, are similar white cross-heads with
' lorgnettes,' and enough of the shaft remaining to tell us that the whole
monument was utterly unlike the Bewcastle cross,
259
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
The Cumbrian ' Spiral ' Crosses
We have travelled a long way in the last paragraph, and arrived in
the midst of a school of art quite strange to the Anglian, and yet
evidently derived from it — the school of spiral design, not entirely con-
fined to Cumberland, but nowhere else seen in such development. The
Roolwer cross in the Isle of Man, and the Maen-y-chwyfan in Flintshire,
with a very few more, show that the style travelled, but its headquarters
were here. It was a rustic and debased school of art, although in its own
way striking out ideas which sometimes became picturesque. The heads
of the crosses are debased from Anglian of a not very early type ; the
interlacing, where there is any, is not naturalistic (or based on real knot-
work of straps and cords), but resembles the applique interlacing in
metal-work, in that each segment of the plait is separate, and the groove
which divides the strand terminates before it tucks under the strand which
crosses it, nor do the segments truly correspond with one another to
suggest a continuous cord interwoven. The figures are grotesquely
debased from the fine Anglian examples, as at Bewcastle ; and the rest of
the design is neither floral scroll nor key-pattern, but a cluster of spirals
without symmetry or sense. In a few cases the spirals appear to be on
the point of blossoming and becoming floral scrolls ; they may be a
faint reminiscence of the Hexham and Bewcastle style ; in most cases
they are clumsy squarish curves which could never have been regarded
as intended for floral, but might have been evolved by a lazy imitation
of the patterns of Irton cross. They resemble the spirals of the Kirk-
oswald fibula, or the Thames stirrup in the British Museum (Anglo-Saxon
Room), and contemporary work in filigree ; and they suggest that the
artist was familiar with such metal-work, but not with any examples of
flower scrolls in stone or in illumination. In some examples they have
become purely symbolic patterns, the svastika and the triskele, and in
all cases there is a tendency to fall into these symbohc forms rather
than to attempt the naturaUsm of the great Anglian artists.
There can be no doubt that we have not here a very early school,
feeling its way to better things and gradually developing into the
Anglian ; for the debased interlacing is such as could not be produced by
a nascent art, in which the attempt to copy nature is always traceable.
Since the models from which this school starts are late Anglian, these
spiral crosses must be later ; and as in some cases they seem to be
influenced by the Scandinavian school of which we have still to speak,
we must put them down as probably ninth to eleventh century, later than
the Anglian, but earHer than the finest Irish-Scandinavian type which
superseded them, though contemporaneous with the earlier Danish and
Norse invasions. As they exist chiefly in Cumbria, though also in
Wales, and in one instance in the Isle of Man, into which the style may
have been imported from Cumberland, it is reasonable to infer that this
spiral school was a Cumbrian school, and created by native Cymric artists
tryin? to work for Anglian and Danish patrons ; and it is curious that
^ ^ ^ 260
White Cross, St. John's, Beckermet.
To face page z6i.
White Shaft, St. John's, Beckermet.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
the type of ornament seems always trying to revert to the much earlier
spiral forms of the ' late Celtic ' school, of which we have some remains
in the district. This tendency to revert in decorative art to forgotten
ancestral patterns is shown also in the Scandinavian character of the
plaits in wood-carving of the seventeenth century designed by descendants
of Danish and Norse settlers. But the people who made the spiral crosses
were a subject and impoverished race, and never carried their art to the
development of which it was capable.
The Beckermet white cross-head already mentioned, with the
' lorgnette ' pattern, has no spirals, but some debased interlacing, and some
rude curved lines which may be attempts at the triskele and crescents,
and some small bosses or pellets, as if imitations in stone of nail heads in
wood-work and rivets in metal-work — these last interpreted by those who
see symbolism in all details as suns or holy wafers. But the sister frag-
ment of similar stone and style, though not part of the same cross, is a
good example of the spirals almost bursting into flower, but not the floral
scrolls of Bewcastle or Hexham.
The Dearham white head seems to belong to a shaft in the church,
making what has been called the ' Kenneth cross,' because the late Rev.
Thomas Lees, F.S.A., and Mr. Calverley thought they saw in the ' bird
and bantling' the saint's rescue as a child by birds, and in the bandy-
legged figure next that group the lame saint with his bell. It is not
impossible that this is the subject of the carving, though that interpreta-
tion would not prove that the cross was of the early British period, for
in the tenth century the Northmen who settled hereabouts were in close
touch with other settlers of their kindred in Wales. The figure on
horseback (not a Flight into Egypt, as there is no child, but only a pellet,
beneath the bridle) is that of a warrior with a sword, probably a portrait
of the deceased. The debased plaitwork (a), and spirals which near the
bird's tail run into key-pattern, and the two svastikas show this to be a
good example of the late spiral style.
Two such shafts are at Aspatria, now built into the vestry of the
church. One has debased plaitwork, spirals, and a svastika and pellets
filling all intervals. The other has two twists over pellets, with spirals
and a curious figure closely resembling a figure on the Maen-y-chwyfan,
Flintshire. So that as Dearham is connected with south Wales by its
(possible) legend, Aspatria is connected with north Wales by this
identity of design. What the man over a little Maltese cross signifies
cannot be made out, as we have only his lower half.
The close connection of spiral-work with symbols like the svastika
and triskele is shown in two fragments at Isel in the church porch, and
the tip of a cross in the church, which bears these signs and a ' thunder-
bolt ' with a ' sun-snake ' beneath, all in work of this style. At Dis-
tington and in the tower of Plumbland church are fragments in which
the triskele sign is still more distinct in the midst of debased interlacing.
A valuable example is one which Canon Knowles called the ' Norse
cross' at St. Bees church, with what must have been a free-armed head
261
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
with 'lorgnettes,' now much broken, and debased interlacing, pellets,
spirals and rude key-pattern.
The 'Norse' Cross, St. Bees.
Key patterns are rather rare in Cumberland on these later crosses.
The fragment from Mr. Rowley's house at Glassonby, now in TuUie
House Museum, has a band of double alternate tJ-TX, as on the Maen-
y-Chwyfan and in crosses at Chester and St. Vigean's. Single bands
of T's occur in Cheshire, Wales and Cornwall, and in a grave-slab at
Clonmacnois, Ireland, dated 931 a.d. The other sides of the Glassonby
The Standing Cross, St. Bees.
shaft have a rude figure and a dragonesque interlacing, and the whole is
evidently Scandinavian of the earher type (that is, not of the fine school
of Gosforth), perhaps tenth century. The 'Norse cross' at St. Bees
262
The * Kenneth ' Cross, Dearham.
Head with a and b patterns on the edges of the shart, and one side of the shaft.
The Two Spiral Shafts in the Vestry, Aspatria.
To face page 262.
a
<
O
To face page 263.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
from its connection with the Cumbrian school may be placed early in
the tenth century, or near the beginning of the Viking settlement.
Later than this is the standing cross at St. Bees, in which the spirals
have disappeared ; the debased interlacing has become dragonesque, and
new motives of plaitwork, Irish in origin, though the interlacing is de-
based, have been introduced, suggesting a transition-form between the
spiral style and the Gosforth cross.
Another transition example is seen in the standing cross in Adding-
ham churchyard, with rude attempt at a wheel-head and ornament
entirely spiral ; and a more advanced type is the Giant's Thumb at Pen-
rith, with what has been a wheel-head and both scroll work and inter-
lacing on the shaft. This cross has been much damaged — indeed it was
used at one time as a pillory ; but since its re-erection in 1887 the
lower part, formerly covered by the earth in which it was sunk, betrays
the debased spirals which did duty for scrolls, and shows that it is really
a transition-form between the Cumbrian and Irish-Norse (Gosforth)
school, though evidently a very fine work of its time.
Transition from one age and style to another does not go on quite
smoothly or along any single line. In this age there is another thread of
developnfient which we must trace, namely the connection between
Cumbrian and Irish-Norse through a series of round-shafted crosses.
The Round-Shafted Crosses
Mr. J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A., has pointed out^ that in Cheshire and
Staffordshire, with outlying examples in Wales (the pillar of Eliseg,
Denbighshire) and Nottinghamshire (Stapleton cross), there is a group of
monuments of which the shaft is round in the lower part but square in
section in the upper part, and he suggested a Midland origin for the
style. We have also a number of such round-shafted crosses, of which
one, the Gosforth cross, is very famous, though not the original from
which the whole series was imitated ; for, as Bishop Browne has
remarked, the pillar of Eliseg bears an inscription which no one is able
to put later than the ninth century {Archaological Journal, xliv. No. 1 74,
1 887, p. 1 5 1 ), while there are many reasons for dating the Gosforth group
early eleventh century.
But just as north Wales is connected with Cumbrian spiral work
through the Maen-y-chwyfan, so it is through this other development
of round-shafted crosses. The connection of the two districts need
not be looked for so far back as Romano-British times, for we know that
kindred northmen settled all along the shore of the Irish Sea from
the Dee to the Solway.
On Solway shore at Anthorn is a thick round shaft with no flat
panels and a free-armed head, locally said to mark the place of a battle
with the Scots and named with another in Greenwood's map (1823) as
1 Anhaol. Camhrensis, 5th series, vi. 24 ; and trans. Hist. Soe. of Lancashire and Cheshire, ix. new
series, 1894.
263
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
' Taylor's crosses.' Mr. Calverley thought he found traces of a crucifix
on the east side, but the stone is very weathered and thickly crusted with
lichen. We can only mention it as a specimen of a round-shafted cross,
without any attempt to date it.
Going south along the coast, at Beckermet, in St. Bridget's church-
Back and Edges of the Inscribed Cross, St. Bridget's, Beckermet.
yard, we find two round shafts — one the famous inscribed cross. Leaving
the inscription for the present, let us look at the ornament, which has
not commanded so much attention. It is a graceful development of
spiral work, budding into trefoils, though not by any means resembling
what we have seen of
Anglian floral scrolls. It
has more resemblance to
a stone built into the
south side of Haile church,
distinctly a Cumbrian
spiral work but suggest-
ing leafage. As we have
already seen, no distinct
continuity can be traced
between this style and
Anglian examples, but the
Cumbrian artist may have
seen or heard of such and
tried to make his spirals
flowery. The St. Brid-
get's inscribed cross is
Spiral Fragment, Haile. therefore Connected on
the one hand with the
Cumbrian spiral school, while on the other it is connected with a new
series. Near it is a similar pillar, comparatively slender and ornamented
264
'U
The 'Giant's Grave,' Penrith.
To face page 265.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
only with plaits of three strands. This is a step towards what we
must next visit, the Giant's Grave at Penrith and the Gosforth cross.
The Giant's Grave at Penrith as arranged
at present has four hogbacks, and two crosses
which are highly developed types of this
second St. Bridget's monument. Both are of
light grey sandstone. The western pillar
stands 135 inches in height from the ground
and measures a little over 5 feet in girth at
about 3 feet from the bottom. For the
height of 8i| inches it is , ' '- .
cylindrical ; above that it has
a band of interlacing, and
higher up it is cut away into
four flat panels with round
bottoms filled with interlac-
ing ; the head is small and
broken but never had any
wheel. The eastern pillar
is 126 inches high, for
61 inches cylindrical, above
which are similar panels 28
inches in height, like those
on the western pillar, and
filled with similar ring-plaits ;
but a cast of the western
panel seen in a side light
(necessary on account of the weathering which has nearly effaced
the pattern) shows figures of a man intertwined with the plaits, another
figure bending over him, and a beast above with head turned over
its back. On the northern panel can be traced a stag. The head
is free-armed, with a cross whose arms project through or from a
ring with a boss in the middle of it, all carved in relief on the
face ; and the lower limb of the bas-relief cross seems to have a
boss in it, and to be in fact another example of the ' lorgnette.' So
that as we have a survival of the Cumbrian school in the spirals of
the Giant's Thumb with its wheel-head, we have a different survival
of the same school in the Giant's Grave with its free-armed head, in
spite of later characteristics in the interlacing and figures (of which more
presently). This gives us a clue to the place of the Penrith group,
which stands on the brink of the fully developed Irish-Norse as seen at
Gosforth.
The hogbacks or recumbent coped shrine-tombs are, like so many
elsewhere, houses of the dead, with roofs carved to look like tiles and
walls ornamented to represent ideas attaching to death and resurrection
or life beyond the grave. One has spirals and plaits, another a fretted
interlacing, all suggesting the dragonesque ' worm-twists ' of which the
265
The Second Shaft, St. Bridget's, Beckermet.
The ' Giant's Grave,' Penrith.
To face page 265.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
only with plaits of three strands. This is a step towards what we
must next visit, the Giant's Grave at Penrith and the Gosforth cross.
The Giant's Grave at Penrith as arranged
at present has four hogbacks, and two crosses
which are highly developed types of this
second St. Bridget's monument. Both are of
light grey sandstone. The western pillar
stands 135 inches in height from the ground
and measures a little over 5 feet in girth at
about 3 feet from the bottom. For the
height of 8 1 1 inches it is
cylindrical ; above that it has
a band of interlacing, and
higher up it is cut away into
four flat panels with round
bottoms filled with interlac-
ing ; the head is small and
broken but never had any
wheel. The eastern pillar
is 126 inches high, for
61 inches cylindrical, above
which are similar panels 28
inches in height, like those
on the western pillar, and
filled with similar ring-plaits ;
but a cast of the western
panel seen in a side light
(necessary on account of the weathering which has nearly effaced
the pattern) shows figures of a man intertwined with the plaits, another
figure bending over him, and a beast above with head turned over
its back. On the northern panel can be traced a stag. The head
is free-armed, with a cross whose arms project through or from a
ring with a boss in the middle of it, all carved in relief on the
face ; and the lower limb of the bas-relief cross seems to have a
boss in it, and to be in fact another example of the ' lorgnette.' So
that as we have a survival of the Cumbrian school in the spirals of
the Giant's Thumb with its wheel-head, we have a different survival
of the same school in the Giant's Grave with its free-armed head, in
spite of later characteristics in the interlacing and figures (of which more
presently). This gives us a clue to the place of the Penrith group,
which stands on the brink of the fully developed Irish-Norse as seen at
Gosforth.
The hogbacks or recumbent coped shrine-tombs are, like so many
elsewhere, houses of the dead, with roofs carved to look like tiles and
walls ornamented to represent ideas attaching to death and resurrection
or life beyond the grave. One has spirals and plaits, another a fretted
interlacing, all suggesting the dragonesque ' worm-twists ' of which the
265
The Second Shaft, St. Bridget's, Beckermet.
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Irish-Scandinavians were so fond. Mr. Calverley with much reason
compared the descriptions in the Edda of Hel, the abode of the dead,
and its walls wattled, not with withes like the houses of the living, but
with snakes. This heathen idea, grafted upon the Christian faith,
flowered into the pretty and favourite device which we shall see often
repeated, and find here in the little figure standing on the head of the
great serpent — the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head,
triumphing over death and proclaiming the hope of life to come.
A fragment of similar workmanship built into the church of
Hutton-in-the-Forest shows that there must have
been other crosses of this type in the neighbour-
hood ; and the sundial and base in the churchyard
may possibly be the original lower part of the same
monument, as appears to be the case elsewhere. At
Penrith is the Plague stone, evidently the socket of
an ancient cross, though known only as the basin
which during times of plague people filled with vine-
gar and put their money in to disinfect it, at the same
time taking up the goods which country folk from
outside had laid by the stone, themselves retiring to a
safe distance.
We must now traverse the county to Gosforth
and view the most famous and beautiful examples of
the round-shafted cross and its associated monuments.
We must treat them briefly, but they have been de-
scribed at length by Mr. Calverley in Rarly Sculptured
Crosses of the Diocese of Carlisle and by Dr. C. A.
Parker in his book on T'he Ancient Crosses at Gosforth,
Cumberland.
There are at Gosforth the remains of three crosses
and two hogbacks ; one little cross-head built into
the porch is probably not pre-Norman. The style
and execution and the 'literary subject' of this famous
group are very similar ; if the three crosses and two
hogbacks were not carved by the same hand, they
represent the work of the same age and race. They
cannot be twelfth century, because the hogbacks were
built into the foundations of the twelfth century
church ; nor can they be Anglian, because they are
quite unlike the work we know to be Anglian, and
because two of the crosses illustrate verses from
the Edda, which is a series of poems made by
Scandinavian skalds under Irish and English
influence in the tenth century. The sculp-
tures do not merely reflect general ideas com-
mon to all Teutonic heathendom, but they show, carved in stone,
pictures obviously intended to embody the very words of the Norse songs.
266
Gosforth Cross.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
The great standing cross at Gosforth is of red sandstone, a monolith
1 4| feet high from the pedestal, which is a rectangular block of three
steps. The lower part of the shaft is cylindrical and measures 40 inches
round the bottom ; for about 4 feet up it is plain and then breaks into
a peculiar interlaced pattern, seen elsewhere on Scandinavian monuments,
and thought by Mr. Calverley to be in-
tended for a conventional representation
of the intertwined branches of a tree, as
if the whole pillar were meant for a great
Tree of Life or the Yggdrasil Tree of
northern mythology. Higher up, as at
Penrith, the round shaft is cut away
into four faces containing figure-subjects
which with all the study that has been
given to them are only partly inter-
preted.
We can see at any rate that dis-
tinctly Christian emblems are curiously
mixed up with emblems as distinctly
heathen. The wheel-cross at the summit
of the monument is a Christian symbol,
and each of its four arms contains the
Triquetra, often used in Irish art to sig-
nify the Trinity. On three sides out of
four great dragons attack this emblem ;
on the fourth the dragon, winged but
bound with many ring-fetters, appears
to be flying from the cross-head, as if
the artist meant to suggest the conflict
of good and evil. On this last side, to
the north, there is nothing more but
two horsemen with spears, the lower
upside down. In such conven-
one
mean a
Crucifixion, Gosforth Cross.
tional art the group should
fight, with the fall of the one who is
reversed ; it may represent some phase
of the conflict of good and evil, or the
actual fight in which the person com-
memorated lost his life or won his
renown, though the warriors of the
pre-Norman time did not usually fight on horseback — they were a
mounted infantry ; and the rest of the figures on the cross are evidently
not portraits but symbols.
The eastern side shows a crucifix of a somewhat Irish type — the
Christ dwarfed like the figures on the Monasterboice cross and elsewhere
in Irish art, and standing in a frame of cable-moulding. Beneath are
Longinus the soldier, piercing His side with the spear, and Mary Magda-
267
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
lene with the alabastron or ' box of ointment ' — a figure which seems to
indicate an English origin, as in an Irish cross there would be a soldier
holding up the sponge. Underneath is a
snake twisted up in itself, with heads at each
end of its body, one attacking the other.
Over the crucifix is a headless row of the
Scandinavian chain-pattern, and above is a
figure holding a spear in one hand and with the
other hand and one foot wrenching open the jaws
of the great dragon above. If this
figure were merely entering the \\ -^.-^'^-^^
dragon's mouth it would be easily t|* i igkal
recognized as the usual representa- '-
tion of Christ's descent into hell,
but it is something more. It
really illustrates a passage in the
Vafthrudnis-mdl, a poem of the
Edda, which tells how Vidar the
Silent, one of the Norse gods,
should avenge the death of Odin
by rending open ' the cold jaws of
the wolf — the dragon wolf, off-
spring of Loki the evil one.
The south side has, beside
dragons and a horseman with spear,
the favourite device, seen already
in part at Penrith, of the stag, em-
blem of Christ or the Christian, I'f >f'
chased by the dog or wolf.
The western side is pure
Edda. At the bottom it contains
a group which Mr. Calverley was
the first to explain as represent-
ing the punishment of Loki. It
is told in the prose Edda, and
there are references to it in the
poem called Vsluspd in the earlier
Edda, how the gods, tired of
Loki's misdeeds, caught him after
a long struggle and bound him with three bonds in an
underground cave over sharp rocks. Above his head
they hung a serpent from whose mouth venom dripped
on his face, but his faithful wife Sigun attended him
and held a cup to catch the drops. ' When the cup
was full she had to turn aside and empty it ; then the
venom dropped on Loki so that he writhed in agony.'
268
Vidar, Gosforth Cross.
South Side, Gosforth
Cross.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
There can be no doubt that the sculpture is meant to illustrate the story.
Above is a horseman with spear upside down, and over him a man
standing with a horn in his left hand and a staff in his right, with which
he is restraining the attack of two plaited serpents.
This seems to illustrate lines in the same poem referring to Heimdal
the warder of the gods, who at the battle of Ragnarok, the Armageddon
Hk, T- ^'" tv
^ ir "• ^ -j^ - ~ ■■ -i >
LOKI AND SiGUN, GoSFORTH CrOSS.
•£1*^ ^ vyr-^'i >irfji
Heimdal, Gosforth Cross.
of Edda mythology, was to blow his horn when the evil powers attacked
heaven. The falling horseman may be one of the attacking enemies or
Odin in his fall or in his descent to hell, but this is less evident. What
is quite plain is that Christian and heathen subjects are curiously mixed
in this monument ; while, curious as it is, the apparent confusion is
not without parallel. On the Penrith crosses there are the stag and
figures very like this group of Loki and Sigun; on the Dacre cross
269
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
are the stag and the dog or wolf ; and there are resemblances in
many sculptures less close and striking. In this way the Gosforth
cross may be regarded as one of a series of Christian monuments
made at a time when the Edda songs were in vogue, and people half
beUeved the stories of the old gods and liked to portray them. That
this was the case we know from the sagas, which tell us of men in
the tenth century who had been baptized but prayed to Thor when
they were at sea or in great danger, and carved Edda stories in wood or
worked them in tapestry ; and we have reason for thinking that Cum-
berland was then the haunt of such Northmen, one of whom would
be fitly commemorated in this monument.
A wheel-head now built into the church in two fragments was
probably part of the cross cut down in 1789 to make the present sun-
dial in the churchyard ; this must have been similar to the standing
cross. A larger wheel-head built into the same wall probably belonged
to a third cross, of which a fragment, now to be seen in the wall under
the heads, was found by Dr. Parker in 1882. This third cross must
have been low and broad, not tall and round-shafted ; but it was carved
with another Edda subject. The story of Thor's fishing is told in the
poem called Hymiskvida : how Thor went out in a boat in the Arctic
regions with the giant Hymir, and fished for the Midgard's-worm, the
great sea-serpent which encircled the earth. He baited his line with
a bull's head and got a bite, but when he was hauling up his catch
the giant became terrified and cut the line with his axe. In the
Fishing stone, the fragment here preserved, the picture of the incident
is given : Thor with his hammer and line, let down with the bull's
head among the fishes ; Hymir with his axe, and the boat with its mast
and crow's-nest as seen in tapestry and other illustrations of boats of the
period. Now it is thought that the Hymiskvida is part of the Greenland
series of poems ; Greenland was not discovered until 982—83, and so
this carving must be later. The Edda songs would have been in vogue
on the borders of the Irish Sea, where they were first composed, about
the year 1000 ; and these illustrations of their subjects must have been
done in the period of their popularity.
Hogbacks
In 1896 under the foundations of the north-west corner of the
Norman church was discovered the hogback called by Mr. Calverley the
' warrior's tomb,' a house-shaped stone with imitative tiles to its roof and
interlacing on one side and a scene of battle or truce-making on the
other. There are two armies with spears and round shields of the pre-
Norman age, one army reversing its spears and its leader apparently giving
up the flag to the leader of the other army. This can hardly mean
anything but a record of victory won by the chieftain of Gosforth here
buried. We know that king iEthelred in 1000 a.d. ravaged a great
part of Cumberland and hoped to meet his fleet on the coast, but the
270
Three Cross-heads at Gosforth.
A, probably head of the destroyed' Sundial Cross ; S^ and B', probably head of the Fishing Stone ; C, late cross-heat
The Fishing Stone, Gosforth.
To face page 270.
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The 'Warrior's Tome,' Gosfor
The ' Saint's Tome,' Gosforth.
To face page 271
. 4>
Hogback, Crosscanonby.
Dearham Cross.
To face page 271,
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
fleet did not appear and so he had to return by the way he came.
Without going so far as to attempt any identification, it is worth while
pointing out that he would have come round the north of Cumberland
towards Ravenglass for the purpose of finding his ships, and it is possible
that here at last the inhabitants, Northmen principally, made a stand.
But there must have been many a battle hereabouts in those days.
In 1897 another hogback was found under the north-east corner of
the nave, and called by Mr. Calverley the ' saint's tomb' because on its ends
there are figures of Christ crucified and perhaps Christ in resurrection.
On its sides are great serpents with human figures wrestling in their coils —
another rendering of the subject already noticed in the Penrith hogback,
the struggle of the seed of the woman with the serpent.
At Plumbland there are two fragments of a hogback which was
built into the church and carved by the early English mason into an
impost or springer for an arch with honeysuckle-moulded ornament
beneath. But the serpent is plainly seen on the walls of the shrine, and
at its ends a variation of the Triquetra which is so conspicuous at
Gosforth.
To complete the series of Cumberland hogbacks that at Bromfield
may be mentioned, built above the Norman arch inside the west door-
way. It has a tegulated roof, but is too defaced and ill seen to illustrate.
At Aspatria is part of a very fine hogback, with elaborate roof and
sides carved into pilasters with rich interlacing. The band of step-
pattern at the eaves and the angular plait along the ridge seem to indicate
a rather later date.
At Cross Canonby is another hogback fairly complete, though its
sides have been defaced. It is of red sandstone, 6 feet i inch long, 2 1
inches high and 17 inches broad. It has at the gable-ends of the mimic
roof some remains of the beasts' heads which were common adornments
of hogbacks, perhaps in imitation of the trophies put up on the gables of
dwelling-houses of the time. The tegulation of the roof is curious, for
it is the same chain-pattern we have seen on the shaft of Gosforth cross
and referred to a Scandinavian origin.
Minor Scandinavian Crosses : Chain-Pattern
The same ornament is the chief feature of the Dearham cross,
which stood until 1900 in the churchyard, but after some injuries was
then put for safety inside the church. The western side bears out Mr.
Calverley's theory that the pattern is intended to represent a Tree of
Yggdrasil ; for there is the bole beneath, breaking into branches among
which are two birds, and ending in curled twigs at the rim of the wheel-
head. On the other side from a coil of roots four stems shoot up through
an arch, which may possibly be intended for the rainbow, the bridge of
the gods by which they descended from heaven ; and above it is another
entanglement of branches. The idea of the artist may have been to sug-
gest, as on so many of these gravestones, the hope of life to come, here
271
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
using a new symbol, which however would be understanded of the people
whether heathen or Christian.
With Dearham cross may be classed the fragments of a head at
Gilcrux church. The boss is six-petalled, like one of the Carlisle
cross-heads we have noted as Anglian, but the identity of pattern is of
far less importance than the identity of treatment ; and here we see inter-
lacing of a type unlike the Anglian, but like these works which we group
together as late and Scandinavian (tenth and eleventh century and Irish-
Norse).
In Muncaster churchyard is another low broad cross with a new
variety of the chain-pattern on its face and flatly treated braids on the
back and edges. Under the main design at both front and back is a
simple step-pattern ; compare the Aspatria hogback. A wheel-head lies
now beside it, possibly its own ; but the socket recently added could not
have fitted this cross, and shows that there were more than one such
monument at Muncaster.
The same variety of chain-pattern is seen on the edges of two crosses
at Bromfield and Rockcliffe churchyards, both rudely hacked or picked
sculptures, but remarkable in having broad raised bands running horizon-
tally round the shafts. It has been suggested that this indicates an
original imitation of basket-work in these interlaced crosses, but we
can trace the development of their various styles from the Bewcastle
cross and the development of that from an adaptation of sixth and seventh
century Greek-Italian art to the standing-stones of the British Christians.
It is still possible however that in the search for variety artists then as
now introduced new ideas by imitating work properly intended for other
materials, and that basket-work, as well as illuminated manuscripts, metal-
work and wood-carving, was sometimes copied. Only this does not
account for the origin of the interlaced crosses as some have supposed.
The Bromfield red-sandstone cross has lost its head, but the Rock-
cliffe cross is complete. It is unusual in this county, because though a
wheel-cross it is not four-holed ; the spaces between the arms are merely
counter-sunk, not pierced. On the bands are grotesque figures of ani-
mals, which lead us to a new class of later monuments, those with beasts,
birds, snakes and human figures, drawn clumsily and with none of the
correctness and dignity of the fine early Anglian work, but resembling
Irish art in MSS. and sculpture.
Later Zoomorphic Sculptures
The Dacre stone, a shaft preserved in the church, was a low broad
cross, bearing at the top a figure almost identical with the animal turning
its head over its back, supposed to be the lamb treading on the serpent,
seen on the Fishing stone. There is a much weathered figure in the same
attitude on one of the crosses of the Giant's Grave at Penrith. The
stag, seen at Penrith and with the dog or wolf on the Gosforth standing
cross, is here seen with the dog or wolf on its back. At the bottom is
272
MuNCASTER Cross.
RocKCLiFFE Cross.
Dacre Cross.
To face page 272.
/^w^
• -,! ^ ''Si,
5.* ...-it-Av^.^
^^ .«-_
Waberthwaite Cross.
To face page 273.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
the scene of the Temptation : Adam and Eve with the tree of Eden and
the serpent. The two figures taking hands over a sqi^are object like an
altar or font have been thought to represent king iEthelstan and king
Constantine, who made a treaty ' at the place which is called Eamot on
the 4th day before the ides of July,' July 12, 926, says the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle. This however is doubtful. We can see that the sculp-
ture is similar to that which we have classed under Scandinavian influence
and that it has some features recalling the spiral Cumbrian style in the
curled accessories of the design. We must place it with the Giant's
Grave as a transition-form on the brink of the Irish-Norse style. It may
be tenth century, and it is possible that it is the grave of some such per-
sonage as Owain, king of Cumberland, but we must leave the two figures
at present uninterpreted.
The Red Shaft, Cross Canonby.
A shaft re-erected by Lord Muncaster in Waberthwaite churchyard
is all interlaced, with the open plaitwork which became more common
at the end of the eleventh and in the twelfth century. Interlacing of
the best period of this art was usually tight, showing very little ground.
This is rudely hacked, not chiselled, and yet designed with some attempt
at symmetry. Among the interlacing is the figure of a horse seen also
at Halton, Lancashire, on a late eleventh century cross.
The wilder character of this Irish-Norse art is brought out in the
standing cross at Aspatria, a red sandstone shaft 4 feet 6 inches high,
from which the head is lost, though it is still possible to trace the curve
of a wheel-cross, like those of Dearham and Gilcrux. Three sides bear
interlacings, fairly regular, but clumsy in drawing and roughly hacked
out ; the fourth side has a wild entanglement without symmetry, but no
I 273 T
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
less ingenious in the following-out of the strands through a wonderful
cobweb maze. Beneath this is a beast with its head turned over its
back, but ruder and wilder than the similarly posed creatures at Dacre
and Gosforth.
Still wilder are those on the red shaft at Cross Canonby, beasts
writhing and trying to bite themselves in two. One edge of this piece
has a wildly twisted dragon, the other edge a ring-plait, and the reverse
a fret — no very definite sign of date, though the cable-moulding links it
to the late pre-Norman types and distinguishes it from the earliest
Anglian.
A similar treatment of monsters appears on a shaft at Workington
church, with angular frets on the sides, bird-like creatures on one edge
and a kind of snake on the other.
The Dragonesqjje Series
Snakes interlaced have already been noticed on the Gosforth crosses
and hogbacks, the St. Bees standing cross, and the Plumbland hogback,
and now we have a series in which this characteristic motive of Irish and
Scandinavian work is very distinctly shown, along with features different
from the Gosforth style.
At St. John's, Beckermet, there is a group of stones preserved in
the church which must have formed parts of three very picturesque
crosses. The main material of ornament in all is a double-strap inter-
lacing of a rather irregular design, recalling the Aspatria standing cross,
but interspersed with the conventional Irish and Norse dragon-heads.
In two of these crosses there are geometrical patterns with curled ends
and pellets filling the gaps, which suggest a survival of the spiral school ;
these, like the Penrith and Dacre examples, being transition-types between
the Cumbrian and Gosforth styles. One of them is remarkable for a
clever use of the drill to punctuate the intersections of the plaits, as in
the braid on the north side of Gosforth standing cross and on the
' saint's tomb.' There is a fragment of a still later shaft with angular
interlacing, and cable-moulding which does not appear in the three
others. The socket-stone no doubt belongs to one of the three.
At Haile there are fragments of dragonesque shafts, figured by
Canon Knowles (in Trans. Cumb. and West. Ant. and Arch. Soc. vol. iii.
1877).
The head built into High Aikton farm and noticed there by the
Rev. Richard Taylor must have come from Bromfield church, though
it is of a different stone from the interlaced cross already described. In
the place of the boss it has a dragon's head with a ring through the
snout — an adaptation of the idea we have seen carried out at Gosforth,
where the serpents attack the cross-head.
The socket-stone in the tower of Brigham church is a good example
of this dragonesque style. There is also a red sandstone wheel-head,
with three fragments of interlacing of this age ; one of them of white
274
To face page 274.
The Dragon Lintel, St. Bees.
Cross-head, High Aikton.
The ' Lawrence ' Slab,
Crosscanonby.
T^o face page 275.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
freestone, very loose in design, angular and disconnected, evidently
belonging to the close of the period. Over the porch of the vicarage
at Brigham is a head which bears a figure entangled in and grasping
interlaced coils which are now too mutilated to show the dragon's head
if there was one, but this is the completed type of the dragonesque
subject — Christ, the seed of the woman, wrestling with and overcoming
the serpent.
The idea is carried out in a shaft recovered in 1900 from the Nor-
man foundations of Great Clifton church, where there is an echo of the
Gosforth saint's tomb in the two dragons surmounted by two small
human figures, a resemblance so striking as to suggest imitation ; while
at the foot of the shaft is a much ruder figure, with nimbus and long
robes, holding and held by the coils of a serpent. Above this is a great
Socket Stone, Brigham Church.
Cross-head, Brigham Vicarage.
dragon with an unmistakable wolfs head, and a little plaited snake with
a human head, the tempter of Eve — another form of the symbolism in
Dacre cross.
The most perfect example of this conflict with the dragon is the
lintel at St. Bees church, representing St. Michael with helmet, sword
and shield fighting the dragon. Finely designed frets are on either side.
This must belong to quite the end of the pre-Norman series, if not to
the twelfth century, when however Cumberland was not yet really
Normanized. There are many bits of twelfth century interlacing, as at
Brigham and Great Salkeld, in the capitals and details of architecture
which show a continuous tradition of these earlier types, and in some
slabs and fonts there are similar survivals which ought not to be omitted
in a review of early Cumberland art.
The curious slab at Cross Canonby with the cable-stemmed cross,
zigzag ornament as in some Welsh stones, and rude figure, is difficult to
class. The ' gridiron ' over the figure's head has been thought to show
275
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
that he is intended for St. Lawrence. The little stone with a rude sketch
of a similar figure incised may be a carver's trial-piece.
At Dearham is a grave-slab with open twelfth century interlacmg,
rosettes and leaves, a helmeted head under an arch, and three figures hold-
ing hands, one of whom, a
U'-
^^0
\
y.-
-rl
=•■' - 1'
t\^1
•Oir
^'k' v.; V i .'
^•■*■V.:■'■|'
■■i^ ■'.■',- ■■
■/:-,'•.
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man helmeted, has his foot
in the mouth of a serpent.
At one end of the slab is
the word ' Adam,' at the
other are runes not satisfac-
torily read.
The font at Dearham
has also open interlacing
and a kind of chequer-work
on the opposite side. On
the other sides it has two
monsters of a type not seen
in earlier work, but per-
haps intended for a griffin
and a cetus, meaning the
spiritual nature and the
water of baptism as in
several other fonts. This
is a square font ; that at
Torpenhow is round, with
late Norman interlacing
and interlaced round arches.
The Bridekirk font is
a famous work of the
twelfth century, noticed
here as showing the out-
come of earlier zoomorphic
interlacing under new in-
fluence from Italy. It
was attributed by Prof.
Stephens, not without some
reason, to Richard of Dur-
ham, a great artist living
about 1 1 20-80 whose por-
trait is here, carved by
himself as at work on the
stone, with his signature in runes above, among floral scrolls of the period
and Norman monsters. On one side is the picture of the Fall, Adam
before the angel with the flaming sword and Eve embracing the tree of
life. On the next is the baptism of Christ, and on the opposite side are
a griffin and a cetus supporting a wheel or sun and framed in a pattern
characteristic of twelfth century north Italian art. It is interesting to
276
" •■V.
,,-T--l—
\\y •'".--V '; 1
'.w
1
■'- ,!-=■)
,^*»IW *■!!
t^
^^sS^
The Adam Slab, Dearham.
Dearham Font.
To face page zy6.
Griffin and Cetus, Bridekirk Font.
•V-
,<<. -Sir
r
To face page zyj.
The Baptism of Christ, Bridekirk Fonx'.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NQRMAN PERIOD
find that as we began 500 years before with north Italian influence pro-
ducing beautiful work in Cumberland, so we conclude the survey with a
new development under teaching from the same source.
Post-Conquest High Crosses
Before leaving the subject of Cumberland crosses it may be neces-
sary to mention those which are not pre-Norman, but of a later date,
though sometimes confused with the early grave-monuments. We have
complete crosses of the mediasval type at Arthuret, Kirkland, Rheda
(Cross Lacon) and St. Bees (the resting cross) ; headless shafts at
Dovenby, Lanercost (dated by inscription 12 14) and Lazonby ; heads
alone at Bromfield (two built into the out-house of the vicarage),
Cumwhitton and Gosforth (built into the porch), and some sockets alone.
Crosses used to exist, but are now lost, at Castle Sowerby (two corpse
crosses on the common), Croglin, Lamplugh, Melmerby and at Bow
said to have been brought from Grinsdale. Beside these are market
crosses, as at Blennerhasset and Ireby, and finial crosses removed from
the gables of churches, as at Melmerby and Workington (Crossbill),
where the inscription W.H. JJ03 stands for W.H. 1703, the date
when it was built into its present position. In March, 1901, a fragment
of a late cross was found in excavating the ruins of a chapel at the Holy
Well, Gosforth.
Inscriptions
In Cumberland there have been found seven Runic inscriptions on
stone and two on metal-work. Another which has been called Runic is
in minuscules ; and an Anglo-Saxon cross-head at Carlisle has lettering
in uncials. These, if not all cut before the advent of the Normans,
belong to the pre-Norman type of remains.
The Bewcastle cross has runes which have been the subject of
much discussion. The reading which may be called the Textus Receptus,
though not without difEculties, we owe mainly to the late Rev. J.
Maughan of Bewcastle. It is as follows —
North side, on separate lines between the ornamental panels ;
t GESSUS t Jesus
WULFHERE Wulfhere
MYRCNAOYNG King of the Mercians
CYNESWIThA Cyneswitha (his sister)
CYNNBURUG Cyneburg (their sister, wife of Alcfrith)
South side, on separate lines between the ornamental panels :
[illegible]
ECGFRIThU OfEcgfrith
RICES Th>EES of this realm
CYNINGES king (brother of Alcfrith)
t FRUMAN GEAR t in the first year
The lowest lines in each set are plainly legible; Herr Wilhelm Vietor
however [Die Northumbrischen Runensteine, 1895) reads CYNIBURUG. The
277
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
rest is now very far from distinct, though part of the topmost line on the
north side can be read.
West side, over the figure of Christ :
t GESSUS
CRISTTUS
Jesus
Christ
There are traces of a name, possibly that of Christ, at the top of
that side. On the panel below the figure of Christ is a long inscription,
which we give in facsimile from a squeeze-tracing. The reading usually
adopted is —
t This SIG-BECN
ThUN SETTON H-
W/ETRED WOTh-
GAR OLWFWOL-
ThU AFT ALCFRI-
ThU EAN CYNINg
EAC OSWIUNg
fGEBID HE.
O SIN(N)A SOWHULA
This victory-column
tall set up
Hwaetred, Woth-
gar, Olwfwol-
thu, for Alcfrith
late king
and son of Oswiu
Pray for (? the high
sin of?) his soul
Herr Victor thinks that the name Hivcetred, part of the Wothgar and the
word for king are distinctly readable ; while he is inclined to accept the
name of Alcfrith and the word for son of Oswiu. In the last two lines
he sees a version of the usual formula, Pray for his soul.
Our facsimile shows how difficult these last lines are to read, and
how doubtful ' the high sin ' must be ; though the main purport of the
inscription seems to be fairly clear. If the Bewcastle cross is to be
dated 671, as its inscription and ornament seem to suggest, these runes
are the earliest dated piece of English writing in existence.
The Irton cross had an inscription in runes, of which Professor
George Stephens of Copenhagen read (from a cast made in 1863 by the
Rev. Daniel H. Haigh) this fragment —
+ GEBIDyCTh FOR>E
Pray for
H
Herr Victor in 1895 said : ' I can only see at the end of the first line
the remains of a B, or as Haigh thought p (Thorn, the rune for Th),
but not Haigh's + G at the beginning of the first line, F at the beginning
and M at the end of the second, /E at the beginning of the third line.'
In Carlisle cathedral a Runic inscription was found by Mr. Purday
in 1855 under the plaster and white-
wash on the western wall of the
south transept, where it may be seen
framed and glazed. It is evidently
not a monumental inscription, though
taken on discovery as such, but the
sgraffito of some mason — perhaps —
at the time when the cathedral was being built. After some guesses
Dr. Charlton read —
TOLFIHN YRAITA Th/ESI RYNR A ThISI STAIN
' Dolfin wrote these runes on this stone.'
278
The Dolfin Runes.
Runes of Bewcastle Cross.
To face pagt 278.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
which Stephens adopted with slight alteration. The circumstances in
which the inscription was found seem to warrant its genuineness, but the
spelling is curious and the forms unusual.
Near Bewcastle at Barnspike a shepherd found runes on a rock in
1864. Mr. Maughan read —
BARANR . HRAIT . AT . GILLHES . BUETH .
IAS . VAS . DAUThR . I . TRIKU . RAB .
D . VAULKS . AT ; FADRLAND . NU .
LLANERKASTA .
He referred this to the legend, exploded by Mr. Hodgson Hinde, of
the circumstances which led to the foundation of Lanercost priory ; and
mm
Barnspike
/fazeigill
translated : ' Baran wrote this inscription in memory of Gillhes Bueth,
who was slain in a truce by Robert De Vaux for his patrimony now
called Lanercost.' We believe that the inscription was a practical joke.
The runes and some of the forms are taken from Mr. Maughan's own
pamphlet, and especially from his erroneous copy of the Carlisle
cathedral inscription. The word he read FADRLAND should be read
FETRIANA, and it was Mr. Maughan's theory that Petriana was the
Roman name for Lanercost. No Scandinavian rune-writer in the
eleventh century would have called Rodbertus de Vallibus ' Rab D (or
te) Vaulks,' or have described Lanercost with imaginary antiquarianism
as ' Petriana now Llanerkasta.' The F was used as initial for Petriana
because P is a rare letter in late Scandinavian runes ; and the double L
for Lanercost was to suggest a Welsh or British origin of the name.
279
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Half a mile north of Barnspike, near Hazel Gill, another shepherd
found more runes on a rock in 1872. Professor Stephens read —
ASKR HRITA HEIL KIL HIMThlK/E
HESSIL
* Ask wrote this hill to Gil henchman to Hessil.'
We can find no HESSIL on the stone, but we find the names Hessil and
Gil in Hazel Gill or Hessil Gill hard by, and Ask at Askerton Castle.
This finding of proper names in place-names was characteristic of the
period and of Mr. Maughan, and the inscription seems to have been
another practical joke (see Early Sculptured Crosses of the Diocese of
Carlisle, 1899, pp. 48—53).
Bridekirk font bears runes of the twelfth century. The second
The Bridekirk Runes.
line is by no means clear, but the reading of W. Hamper (1820) and
Professor Stephens does not seem to have been bettered —
t RIKARTh HE ME IWROKT(E)
& TO This MERThE GERNR ME BROKTE
* Richard, he me wrought, and to this beauty carefully me brought.*
At Dearham the ' Adam Slab,' already described, has beside the
word ADAM a few broken runes. The Rev. W. S. Calverley communi-
•4 M*flT
The Dearham Runes.
cated them to Professor Stephens, who said that as later runes they
would read HNI^RM, which means nothing : therefore he regarded them
as early runes and read —
(Krist S)U(L) GI-NI/ERA
'May-Christ his-SOUL N/ERE (save, bless)!'
He dated the stone, from this reading, ' 850-950 ? ' but this date seems
280
The Inscribed Cross, St. Bridget's, Beckermet.
To face page 281.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
impossible from the character of the ornament on the slab, which
suggests twelfth century work. Herr Vietor only says : ' The northern
rune M (earlier R) shows that the inscription is not EngHsh in character.'
We leave our tracing to the reader's consideration.
The amulet ring found at Kingmoor in 1817 or 1818 (now in
the British Museum, Anglo-Saxon Room) also bears runes, which
appear to be a magical formula (see Stephens, Old-Northern Runic
Monuments, i. 496 ; iii. 218).
The Aspatria gold armlet, found in 1828, and now lost, had runes
which were thought to read GEROT, but the drawings made at the time
are not sufficiently exact to determine them (Stephens, op. cit. i. 160).
The Anglian cross-head found at Carlisle in 1857, and now in the
Fratry, has an inscription in uncials on both sides. At the time of its
discovery Professor Westwood
dated it about 700 a.d., remark-
ing that the forms of the letters
were those of MSS. of that period.
The peculiar S after the cross
occurs in the Durham book and
in the book of St. Chad. The
word SIGTTEDIS was thought to
be a female name.
The cross of St. Bridget's,
Beckermet, used to be called
Runic, and it has been variously
read ; but the rubbings (still exist-
ing) from which some of these
attempts were made were very Fragment, found 1857. Carlisle.
imperfect. There is no doubt that
the letters are minuscules, rather tall for their breadth, with d for a.
They may be read somewhat as follows —
[line wanting]
r I n t a 1 g g n e
iuan : icati-
fos : fa : gelfe {or safe)
rr
To Mr. John Rogers of Barrow-in-Furness we owe suggestions
leading to an interpretation which however must be regarded as only
tentative. Considering the inscription as some form of Gaelic, and the
q at the beginning of the third existing line as a form of d {i.e. a), the
words might be expanded : ' . . . rinta le gne Iuan {mh)i{c) Cairabre,
ithmigh aig fos fa selbh,' ' (This cross was) made for the face of {i.e. for
the purpose or memory of) John son of Cairbre, gone to rest under the
keeping of — /. Xst, 'Jesus Christ.' For the remainder Mr. Rogers
281
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
suggested : {Fo)rm-si Cr{ist air), ' Be gracious to him, O Christ ! ' (see
Early Sculptured Monuments in the Diocese of Carlisle, pp. 26—3 i).
Metal- WORK
In the Tullie House Museum, Carlisle, are various objects of
British workmanship found with urns of a late-Celtic type at Carlisle.
There is the bronze torque found in English street ; the enamelled
Celtic fibula of late Roman time found in building the new market,
and another fibula like it ; pins of the same period, and horse-trappings,
representing native art during and for some time after the Roman
occupation. A more magnificent specimen is the iron sword in a bronze
sheath found at Embleton, and now in the British Museum. The sword
is about 20 inches long, slightly curved and double-edged. Round the
pommel are bits of paste en cabochon, alternately light red and emerald
green. The sheath is of thin bronze with a chequer pattern ; its bands
and tip are of solid bronze. The style of pattern called late-Celtic,
with trumpet-shaped curves and spirals, lasted through the Roman
period and into the Christian age. This is seen, for example, in the
stone monuments and metal-work of Scotland ; and in Cumberland there
was a curious instance in the late-Celtic disc of champleve enamel
(British Museum, from Crosthwaite's Museum at Keswick), which was
used to attach a hook to an Anglo-Saxon bronze bowl. The locality
and circumstances of the find are however unknown.
Of dated relics in metal-work we have the hoard found in June
1855 at Scotby, 6 feet deep in a peat moss, comprising about 100 coins
of Edward the Elder and Athelstan (910-41) with ten or twelve
ingots, an iron horse-shoe with six square holes for nails, and a small
iron bill-hook. At Kirkoswald early in the nineteenth century were
found more than 700 stycas, dating from 796 to 854, with a silver fibula
now in the British Museum. It is trefoil-shaped, with flat red paste
iewels, one of which remains in place ; the ornament is solid and in high
relief. It used to be ascribed to the period of OfFa, king of Mercia
(d. 796), but rather resembles later Scandinavian types. Both these
hoards are of the Viking age.
At Carlisle Castle was found a brooch with an Anglo-Saxon inscrip-
tion, present locality unknown and description imperfect ; but another
fibula, said to have been found near Carlisle, and exhibited in 1859 by
the Rev. Tullie Cornthwaite, is described in the catalogue of the collec-
tion shown at the meeting of the Royal Archaeological Institute as
penannular, and of copper or some other base metal thickly plated with
gold, about I inch in diameter. Other penannular brooches have been
found near Dacre and Penrith, and at Brayton. The first was discovered
in Newbiggin Moor Silver Field near Fluskew Pike, Dacre, in 1785,
together with silver rings, near a site of interment with stone coffins,
urns and bones. It can hardly have had more than an accidental con-
nection with these interments in urns, for the engraving in Clarke's
282
The Kirkoswald Fibula.
The Brayton Fibula.
To face page 282.
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
Survey of the Lakes gives us a magnificent specimen of the bulbous
penannular fibula, such as elsewhere has been found in Viking graves
with tenth century coins. This brooch was of silver, weighing 25
ounces, and variously described as having a ring 7 or %^ inches in
diameter and a pin 21 or 22 inches in length. An almost identical
brooch is said to have been found in a field near Penrith in 1830 ; it
was exhibited in Carlisle 1859 by Mr. J. Teather, Alstonby. The third
alluded to above, and known as the Bray ton fibula, was found in a fish-
pond at Brayton Park some time before 1790, when it was mentioned in
Pennant's Tour to Scotland. It was originally — only a fragment was
recovered — a flat penannular brooch of silver, ornamented with an inter-
laced triquetra ; and though different in form from the Dacre brooch,
like it resembling brooches found in Viking graves. With it was found
a silver hook, weighing 2 ounces and 4I inches in length. We may
hazard a guess that this was the bent pin of the brooch.
The Kingmoor amulet ring, of which the runes have been men-
tioned, was of gold, weighing nearly 1 5 pennyweight. Another ring is
mentioned by Stephens (Old-Northern Runic Monuments, iii. 218) as found
somewhere in the north of England, and owned in 1870 by Mr. Robert
Ferguson. This seems to be an imitation in copper of the Kingmoor
ring. The Aspatria gold armlet with its runes has also been men-
tioned ; it was found in the ditch of a hedge somewhere within the parish,
and at Beacon Hill was the tumulus with incised slabs and gigantic
warrior buried with his arms, which has been described by Chancellor
Ferguson earlier in this volume. This interment was more probably
Viking than Anglian, because by the time the Anglians penetrated into
Cumbria they were Christianized, and would not be buried in heathen
fashion ; but the Danes and Norse at first were pagan. The same may
be said of the Hesket hoard, which was found in 1822 in a tumulus
near the Court Thorn, and is now in TuUie House. It included an iron
sword, with pommel and guard complete, but bent up and broken across,
as in many Scandinavian graves ; an engraved pattern is still visible on
the guard — a braid of three straps, each of three strands. There was
also a shield-boss, an axe, a lance-head, a dart-head and a curved knife ;
a spur, snaffle and buckle ; a hone, and a bone comb and bone objects
which may be mountings of the sword-sheath, with engraved patterns —
two plaits of three strands each and a simple twist of two strands. Among
the stones of the cairn were bits of querns ; one of them of the dark grey
volcanic rock from Andernach, used here by the Romans.
The snaffle found at Hesket recalls a bridle-bit found at Birdoswald,
and exhibited in 1859 by Mr. G. Head Head of Carlisle. It was
described in the catalogue by the late Sir A. W. Franks and other dis-
tinguished antiquaries as of ' Old English type ' ; and such parts of a
horse's harness are common in Viking graves.
In the Anglo-Saxon room of the British Museum is a sword-
handle found in Cumberland and purchased 1876, the exact locality not
stated. It is of wood, with gold filigree on bands of gold, and garnets
283
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
inserted, evidently mere remnants of a more complete covering. A
triangular space is filled with red enamel in panels. Gold filigree of
this kind with garnets was much used in Scandinavia in the later part of
the early Iron Age, but enamel was, though not unknown, exceedingly
rare. This sword may therefore belong to the earlier Anglian period ;
and it may be remarked in passing how few remains we have which can
certainly be attributed to that age, beyond some sculptured stones in the
north and west of the county. Most of these bits of metal-work, and
by far the greatest part of the sculptured stones, refer to the later pre-
Norman period, after the Danish and Norse invasions.
With these remains may be mentioned the ' Saxon beads of glass
and other ornaments, which may be seen at the rectory ' of Kirkbride,
as Whellan stated in i860 ; and the spinning-whorl of black and red
dull glass found at Moresby, and now in the Anglo-Saxon room of the
British Museum.
There can be no doubt that, as Chancellor Ferguson has remarked
above, many other pieces of ancient metal-work have been found and
lost again or destroyed ; but such fine examples as the Embleton sword,
the Dacre fibula, and those here described, show that the earlier Celts
and later Teutonic settlers of Cumbria were not without wealth and art.
Earthworks
The ancient earthworks of Cumberland other than those of Roman
origin are taken together here, though some may have been constructed
before the Romans came, and some were certainly in use after the Nor-
man Conquest. But as a series they are connected with the dark age
between Romans and Normans rather than with any other period ; and it
is only by taking them in series, and comparing one with another, that
much light can be thrown upon what has always been an obscure part of
local archaeology. Many of these earthworks have disappeared since they
were described by writers of 100 years ago. In those cases we must fall
back on the old descriptions and plans, though skilled exploration would
even yet yield interesting results, if such attention were given to non-
Roman sites as lately has been given to the Roman Wall.
We can roughly divide the known remains into duns, tuns and motes ;
that is to say, strongholds of British type, many of which we may find
to be post-Roman ; enclosures by Teutonic settlers, probably for domestic
and agricultural purposes, and only secondarily used as walls of defence ;
and mounds, wholly or partly artificial, on which the later settlers,
whether Anglian, Danish or Norman, built their wooden houses, sur-
rounded by trench and stockade, with or without the addition of a base-
court. These last sometimes developed into the medieval pele or the
Edwardian castle ; and probably, in a few cases, the early mote is now
quite lost in the midst of a modern town. The better the site, the more
likely it would be to find favour with successive generations of inhabit-
ants, and to be transformed, century after century, into the kind of dwel-
284
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
ling or stronghold in vogue at the time. Carlisle Castle, for example,
may have been a pre-Roman dun ; and it was probably a British caer
after the Romans left, and then an Anglian stockaded burh, and then a
Norman castle. But the evidences of earliest occupation are lost ; and
so it is with several other sites.
DtiNS AND Caers
The stronghold — whether homestead, town, or place of safety in
time of war — peculiar to British ages was usually on a hill, and sur-
rounded with broad and high ditches and ramparts. The more perfect
types have three ramparts, as seen in Shoulthwaite Castle, a fortified hill
in a little valley between Derwentwater and Thirlmere. The triple
rampart does not entirely surround the crag, because it is only needed on
the tongue of land joining the site with the neighbouring hills. Hutch-
inson (ii. 1 54) says that pieces of freestone had been found here, and a
well and wood ashes ; and there' is a tradition that it was used during
Scottish raids. The freestone suggests a post-Roman date, and the place
may have been occasionally occupied throughout many centuries, for it
lies near but hidden from the great routes through the Keswick and
Thirlmere valleys by which raiders and invaders must often have ad-
vanced upon the shepherds and farmers of the dales.
Similar hill-forts, though the ramparts, if any, are not now visible,
existed at Castlehead or Castlet, Keswick, where wood ashes have been
found in digging ; and at Castle Crag, Borrowdale, where Hutchinson
mentions finds, a century ago, of leaden vessels, an iron pot, freestone
again, and two wells, and, what shows continuity of use to a very late
period, the head of a halbert dated 1684. Reecastle, above Lodore, is
also said to have been a fortified hill.
Dunmallet, at the foot of UUswater, is a very fine example of a
fortified hill, but with only two ramparts, though these are continuous
and well marked. Freestone has been found here also ; but the story of
a monastery on the site is an error. Whatever the name means, it is a
British word, and shows that when the speech of Cumbria was Celtic
this was known as a dun.
At the foot of Bassenthwaite lake, close to Peel-wyke, so named
from this fortress, are the similar entrenchments of Castlehow. This
however is not regular in form : there are four trenches on the side
towards Peel-wyke, and only two on the more easily defensible side.
Not far north of this, and as it were an outpost of the fells, is
Caermote. As an ancient road runs through the camp, which is square,
about 160 by 140 yards in size, with a gate in three of its sides, Caer-
mote has been thought Roman. Early antiquaries said that altars and
inscriptions had been dug up at a camp near Ireby, and it was supposed
that this was the place. But it differs from a true Roman camp in
having triple earthen ramparts, characteristic of British strongholds ;
and, though the buildings in and near it have been partially explored,
285
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
no Roman remains nor distinctive Roman masonry appeared. Melted
lead, iron nails and charcoal, and debris of brick were met with, show-
ing that it was not pre-Roman. Inside the larger entrenchment a
smaller one has been formed, which Chancellor Ferguson took to mean
that at first a cohort was placed there to make the road, and then a cen-
tury was left to guard it. In 1899 however, after revisiting Caermote,
he withdrew his earlier opinion, and said that it might be omitted from
the list of Roman sites.
Mr. W. Jackson of St. Bees thought the irregular entrenchment
on the top of the hill, 935 feet above the sea and about 60 by 70 feet
wide, was the mons exploratorius or look-out station of the Romans. It
is called the Battery, and was the site of a beacon. But the name and
remains suggest a post-Roman occupation.
Some of the hill-forts have only a single rampart. The much-
discussed ring of boulders and earth on the top of Carrock Fell, oval in
shape, with one end replaced by the easily defensible brow of a steep
fell-side, and containing a cairn, may be an example, though some have
doubted whether it is not partly natural and partly the result of miners'
trial diggings. On Little Mell Fell there is another ring embankment ;
at Greencastle loch, east of the Maiden Way on Cross Fell, there may
be found a semicircular fortification of earth on the top of Roderick
heights — a name which suggests the famous king Rhydderch. At a
point half a mile north of Burnmoor tarn, between Wastwater and Esk-
dale, Maidencastle is the name given to a round enclosure, 21 feet in
diameter, possibly a hill-fort of refuge, not necessarily to be connected
with the Megalithic remains and cairns on the same moor.
Another Maidencastle, also known as Caerthanoc, lies on Soulby
Fell near Dunmallet. It is a circular entrenchment, 82 yards internal
diameter, with an area of rather more than an acre. The entrenchment
has two ramparts with a ditch, 1 8 feet wide in parts, between them ;
and Dr. M. W. Taylor, writing in 1868, said that a few years earlier
blocks of stone were visible in the entrenchment. Earlier still, Hutchin-
son found within the ring an oblong square fort, measuring 20 by 15
paces ; mentioned also in the eighteenth century by Father West. At
present this is hardly visible, but the ring remains, so placed that it can
scarcely be called a hill-fort, though it occupies an elevated position on
the fell. It is more like the site of a British settlement, the caer of
another chief.
The peculiar form of this double rampart with the single ditch is
seen also in two curious 'camps,' one on the east and one on the west of
the county, far removed in position but very similar in construction.
At Ousby there is the five-sided enclosure with double rampart and
ditch, called Crewgarth, where foundations of walls have been seen, and
an urn (type not stated), a quern, a mortar and a metal ball weighing
2 or 3 lb. have been found at different times. Chancellor Ferguson
thought it Anglo-Saxon or later ; and no doubt it was an inhabited site
in historical ages.
286
REMAINS OF THE PUE-NORMAN PERIOD
Near Ponsonby, on Infell, is a similar enclosure, with double ram-
part and ditch ; Dr. C. A. Parker of Gosforth gives the measurements of
the sides as 22 paces, 64, 52, 75 and 41, and of the ditch as 4I to 6
feet in depth, and 22 feet from crest to crest of the ramparts. Near the
north angle is a circular tank for water. No remains have been found
there. The notion that it was Roman is now abandoned.
A similar double rampart forms the D-shaped camp at Skew Hill
on the Eden opposite Grinsdale, with an area of about 2| acres. The
ordnance map marks it 'Camp, 1745,' but it is connected by its form
with a much earlier date of origin. Two small round forts, with the
same kind of double rampart, are on opposite sides of the Irthing valley
— one called Tower Tye close to Naworth Castle railway station, and
one called Watch Hill north-west of Triermain. Maclauchlan, in his
Memoir on the Roman Wall, pointed out that they stood in striking rela-
tion to the Norman castles near them, and did not think that either
were British. Tower Tye may be British, Twr meaning ' tower ' and Ty
' house,' and there is another place of the same name near Walwick-on-
the-Wall. The interior diameter of Tower Tye is about 50 yards, and
the ramparts are very well marked, almost out of proportion to the
enclosed space, evidently making it a stronghold of some importance.
In the same district is Hayton Castle Hill, a circular eminence 1 20
feet across within the double rampart and ditch. The ditch varies in
breadth from 5 to 12 feet. The site is on the extremity of a narrow
projecting eminence, separated on the south from the village by a deep
ravine, the sides of which are about 15 feet high, artificially scarped.
The centre of the Castle Hill is level and depressed, rising 3 or 4 feet
on the west and 8 feet on the east. Chancellor Ferguson classed it as
a burh, but the Rev. G. Rome Hall considered it a British fort ; and we
see that its double rampart connects it with the preceding series.
A few miles south of this, on the steep banks of the Eden, in the
parish of Cumwhitton, is a round fort known as Castle Hill. Across the
Eden, on Lazonby Fell, are a round camp and fort ; and near them, at
Castlerigg, 'ruins of a building, moated round' (Hutchinson, i. 289).
South of that again, at Greystoke, is the irregular rectangular camp by
Summerground Gill on Berrier Hill, the fort at Wallaway Green, and
the large oval camp at Newton Reigny, near Catterlen (formerly written
Kaderleng, another caer), and near tumuli where urns have been dis-
covered.
Going north towards Caldew we find the sites of three hill-forts
in Castle Sowerby : Knights' Hill, Southernby, a hill with founda-
tions of buildings (Hutchinson, ii. 433) perhaps mediaeval and named
from the red knights of Inglewood ; Castle How or Castle Hill, a rock-
cut hill-fort, which is said by tradition (Jefferson, Leath Ward, p. 138,
following Hutchinson) to have been palisaded and to have been used in
comparatively modern ' times, perhaps to secure cattle during border
forays ; and How Hill, a round fort about 2 1 yards in diameter, with
an opening on the south side.
287
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
Other round forts are mentioned by the Rev. J. Clifton Ward at
Fitz Wood, Cockermouth ; the Battery, Cromwell Holes ; Embleton
Moat ; and a mile north-east of Uldale. In West Cumberland are six
more round camps, forts or settlements. At Eaglesfield, Castlesteads is
the name of a circular enclosure containing an acre or more. At Gatra,
near Lamplugh, is another earthen ring. At Pardshaw, the White
Causeway is a stony platform adjoining a raised ring of gravel and
boulders, which encloses what is now a swampy basin ; though, like
Hardknott Camp, it must have been drained when in use. At Dovenby
Hall is an oval camp measuring 112 by 72 yards in the park, another of
about 58 yards diameter in the field called Guards (Garths, a name often
denoting an ancient enclosure), and a smaller one between the two. The
form of the rampart of the largest suggests a resemblance to the 'British
settlements ' known in Westmorland.
Two other sites are connected by name with British times, though
the earthworks are now too far ruined for classification. Dunwalloght
or Drumwalloght, near Cumrew, on the side of the hill called Cardun-
neth, is in the neighbourhood of many British place-names. The story
that the Dacres had a seat here (mentioned by Hutchinson) is probably
an error, but there used to be earthworks in a field near the church,
and in 1832 two hillocks were removed, both apparently artificial ; no
foundations of buildings or other remains were seen. On the other
hand. Castle Hewen or Ewain, just across the Eden valley from Dun-
walloght, seems to have been a stone building. Jefferson {heath Ward^
p. 225) describes the foundations as in his time (1840) faced with large
ashlar stones, in some parts 8 feet in thickness. The castle measured
233 by 147 feet, with a smaller building at one corner 49 feet square.
The outward fence, which was of stone, appeared (says Jefferson) to
have been circular, and from thence a ditch and breastwork ran down
the skirt of the hill for several hundred yards. It was called Castel
Lewen by Leland ; and very ancient tradition made it the fortress of
Ewain, Eugenius or Owain, king of Cumberland, and the scene of Sir
Gawaine's adventure when ' king Arthur lived in merry Carlisle.'
Tarn Wadling was not drained in Jefferson's time, but it had dis-
appeared by Whellan's (i860).
TtJNs AND Square Camps
Under this heading are collected a number of dykes, generally less
massive than the great ramparts of the duns^ and not circular or oval.
Some of them are square, or nearly square, in plan, and some irregular,
but more or less following straight lines. The square camps used to
be thought Roman, but lack the essential characteristics of true Roman
camps.
Such are the square enclosure at Overwater, the little square
' camp ' at Thistlebottom (about a mile from Aughertree Fell), and the
two small square camps near Rose Castle, of which Hutchinson (ii.
288
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
433) says that they were in his time almost defaced, and no remains
known to date them ; they were about 50 yards wide, one NNE. and
the other SSW. of the castle. Such also was the square camp at
Cunninggarth, near Shawkbeck quarries, which used to be thought
Roman because it was near the rock in the quarries with a Roman
inscription, and because not far away urns containing ashes and bones
were found in the barrow called Toddle Hill, long since removed.
There are several minor square enclosures in this district, and some
near Stockdalewath especially interesting, which were described with
figures by Hayman Rooke in the eighteenth century (Hutchinson,
ii. 430-1).
Of these, Castlesteads was a square camp of 188 by 160 yards,
with corners rounded and two entrances, one in the middle of the north
side, through which a paved way seems to have led, and one near the
south-eastern corner. In the middle of the area was a smaller enclosure,
86 yards square, containing the ruins of three houses, where stones and
ashes were found, but no urns. This has some little resemblance to
Caermote, but it is more like the plan of an Anglian or Scandinavian
settler's homestead, with its tungarth surrounding the tun or homefield,
and group of dwellings in the middle.
Whitestones was a square area, ipo by 98 yards wide, enclosed
by a single ditch and vallum, with corners much rounded off, and no
remains observed ; one side and corner of the dyke had been obliterated.
Stoneraise was a similar square of 67 yards, two sides and part of the
third only remaining, for several hundred loads of stones had already
been carted away from the site. Within the area were walls and ruins
of buildings and cairns ; a tooth and bits of burnt bones and ashes
were found in the cairns, and querns and an iron billhook. Near these
was a tumulus of 63 feet diameter, on which there had once been a
stone circle ; and in it stone coflEns and bones were found, but it does
not follow that the sites were contemporary with the circle. They
appear to have been dwelling-places, and of a much more recent origin
than such a tumulus would be if it was of the Bronze age type, like
the similar tumulus with a circle recently excavated at Glassonby.
At the Heights, Westward, a place called Height Rigg Camp
or Stoneraise Camp Trenches existed formerly, and was described
by G. A. Dickson in 1816 {Archceologia Mliana, i. 132, with plan).
Two parallel dykes, about 225 paces in length and 60 paces apart, ran
east and west ; a door was in the middle of the most northerly, and
on each side of the door were remains of building or entrenchment
connected by a paved way (as at Castlesteads). The western enclosure
was rectangular, 28 by 40 paces, with a wall running out from the
middle of its western side for 45 paces, and a door opening on the
causeway which led to the eastern building, and into it by another
door. This eastern building, or what remained of it, was a semicircle,
and a great stone stood in the centre. Four large tumuli, the writer
mentions, stood about a mile away, and another half-way between them
I 289 u
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
and these remains, of which he took the semicircle to be a temple and
the great stone an altar. Comparing his plan with those of early
remains of the Scandinavian settlers in Iceland — which throw much
light on the domestic arrangements of the people who, as Danes and
Norse, colonized our country — there is a certain resemblance to some
examples of the dwelling-house and temple, of which one end was built
in the form of an apse, the whole surrounded by the tungarth.
Other extensive dykes may perhaps have been the t^ngarths of such
settlers. The Bishop's Dyke at Dalston, though used in the Middle
Ages as a defensible barrier, may have been originally intended as
marking off the homefields of the settler at Dalston Hall. Near Great
Salkeld, at the hamlet of Salkeld Dyke, is a ' camp ' about 400 yards
long and 4 yards high, about a quarter of a mile from the stone ruins
called Aikton Castle. The Baron's Dyke, Crosby-on-Eden, is mediaeval.
On Cumwhitton Common were several square entrenchments from
20 to 100 yards wide (Hutchinson, i. 177). On Penrith Common was
a square entrenchment 20 yards each way, at or near which cistvaens
were found, and others similar were known in the neighbourhood in
Hutchinson's time (i. 321).
' CoUinson's Castle ' at Upper Row in Hutton-in-the-Forest was
an ancient fortification about 100 yards square, with a ditch 30 feet
wide and a well ; querns had been found there QefFerson, Leath Ward,
p. 438). On Pykethwaite Fell north of Bewcastle, at Christenbury
Crags, the existence of a camp with ruins of a wall about z\ feet wide,
and another about i \ feet wide, and ' a sunken ew^a'ywv ' (nine-cornered
pit) nearly paved round with strongly cemented stones, and sunken
circles 'paved as if for fires,' was reported by J. Hudson in 1804
[Gentleman^ s Magazine Library, ' Romano-British,' i. 38). At Braystones
was once a camp on the beach called Maidencastle (anonymous Antiquities
of West Cumberland, 1849, p. 67).
These items, to which more might be added, give an idea of the
variety of non-Roman, and probably post- Roman earthworks, of which
many are lost and none properly explored.
A class of square ruins exists on the high fells — the remains of
stone-built houses, sometimes with garths surrounding them, and possibly
analogous to the Castlesteads of Stockdalewath and Height Rigg Camp
at Westward. On Armboth Fell, between Thirlmere and Shoulthwaite
Castle, are many little buildings with one, two or more chambers, cer-
tainly not sheepfolds. On Bootle Fell and near Gosforth are old home-
steads with garths complete, exactly like Icelandic ruins of the saga time.
Indeed, in spite of losses, there is a great field for study in these remains
as they exist even to-day ; and meantime it would be to very little
purpose to theorize upon them.
Motes
Some of the grave-mounds which have been opened in Cumberland
have been proved to belong to the Anglian or Viking age. Such are
290
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
the Beacon Hill at Aspatria and the Hesket tumulus, already described.
The late Rev. J. Maughan of Bewcastle has recorded a find (about 1858)
of a skeleton buried with knees contracted and lying on the left side,
not in a kist, but roughly walled up and covered with a heap of stones
known as Murchie's Cairn, to which he ascribed a ' Pagan Saxon '
origin. We may mention Dunmail Raise as traditionally connected
with the last fight (945) of the last king of Cumberland, Dummail
or Domhnall, who however cannot have been buried there, as he died
in Rome much later, and the cairn seems to have been opened long
ago without much result. But it may be noted here that all tumuli
are not prehistoric, nor are they all places of burial. Some are artificial
bases for a certain type of dwelling. The moated mound, with or
without a separate base-court, is found also in Normandy, Germany
and Scandinavia. In its fully-developed form it was a hillock, improved
into a steep cone, and surrounded by a dyke which was palisaded. On
the top the lord and his family lived in a wooden house ; near at hand
and within view from this ' howe ' was a dyked and palisaded base-
court, in which the cattle and thralls were kept at night.
That this was used by the Normans in our district can be seen
from a comparison of the two earliest homes of the Le Fleming family,
Aldingham Moat and Carnarvon Castle at Beckermet. The former is
in a fair state of preservation — not in Cumberland, but not far from
its borders — in Furness ; the latter has nearly disappeared, but is de-
scribed by Sir Daniel Fleming in his account of Cumberland (1671).
He says that the ruins consisted of an oblong square of about 1 00 by
85 yards, with a ditch 12 yards broad and 4 yards deep (compare some
of the ' square camps ' above mentioned). The entrance was at the
west end, opposite to which was a round artificial hill called Coney-
garth Cop, about 12 yards high, and the top 6 yards broad. It was
formerly called Carnarvon Castle, he says, the early home of that branch
of the Flemings who settled there in the beginning of the twelfth
century. We see from this that the mote was used in Norman times,
and that the country folk in Cumberland talked Welsh, for ar-mhon
{arfon) means ' opposite Mona,' in sight of the Isle of Man ; and
Caernarvon in this sense is not a name borrowed from the castle, famous
at a much later day, on the Menai Straits. Coney-garth Cop would
be the English name, ' King's Court Hill,' as if, still earlier, this had
been the caer of some British kinglet or the possession of some greater
sovereign.
Not far away is Egremont, Egener-mot, the mote on the Eh en ;
and it has been remarked by antiquaries that this Norman castle is
on a hill artificially scarped, and perhaps, they have said, a ' Danish
fort.' The anonymous author of The Antiquities of West Cumberland
(1849) says that similar artificial hills existed at Wotobank (formerly
Wodabank), Borough Hill near Braystones, between the Ker and the
Ehen, Ivy Hill near Coneygarth and another at Frizington. These
are different from the British hill-fort in its more pronounced types,
291
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
but some of the doubtful examples already given, as Hayton Castle Hill,
Tower Tye, Watch Hill, and Skew Hill, approach very closely to the
less distinct forms of mote-hill. A good example of the difficulty is
seen in Liddel Strength, or Liddel Moat, as it is sometimes called.
Liddel Strength is on the edge of a precipice, 150 to 160 feet above
the river, and on the other side of it runs a Roman road. It may have
lost something by the fall of the edge of the precipice, but in General
Roy's day the semicircular inner court measured 13 by 9 yards, sur-
rounded by a great rampart and ditch, and containing the remains of
a dwelling-house. Another rampart and ditch enclosed a rather larger
crescent-shaped area to one side, representing the base-court. This is
far different from the mote proper, and more nearly like such British
forms as Shoulthwaite Castle ; but it is known to have been in use in
the twelfth century. Chancellor Ferguson thought it probably eighth
or ninth century to Norman ; others have made it the caer of Gwen-
ddoleu, a Celtic chief slain 573 at Arthuret, seeing in Carwinley, or
Carwhinelow, the name Caer-gwenddoleu. General Roy thought it
Roman, but that is impossible.
But on Roman sites and out of Roman ruins later comers con-
structed imitation hill-forts, for such the motes are ; and we cannot
always tell the date of their construction, especially when the same place
was continuously occupied for centuries. At Maryport the south end
of the Castle Hill has been made into a moated mound, 1 60 yards in
circumference, by digging a ditch to cut off the scarped end of the
hill (Britton and Bray ley, Cumberland, p. 207). At Beaumont, Castle
Green is the old name for a space north-east of the church, where a
ruined Roman mile-castle has been turned into a moated mound
(Maclauchlan, Memoir, p. 80). Hence the name Beau-mont, as Ellen-
burgh is the burh on the Ellen.
Of moated mounds without base-courts now to be seen, there are
Brampton Mote, a conical hill about 50 yards high, with a level summit
about 40 paces in diameter and a breastwork round it ; the similar mote
near Irthington church, and another less certain in its intention at
Irthington mill ; and a mound and wet ditch at Holm Cultram, north
of the abbey. The mound at Bleatarn on the Roman wall, it may
be noted, is modern, though it has been classed as a mote by former
writers.
Mounds with base-courts like Carnarvon Castle exist at Whitehall
(a mile south-west of Mealsgate railway station) ; at Downhall, Aikton,
where a square platform has been made by cutting ditches across a long
narrow hill and on each side of it ; at Over Denton near the old vicarage
(marked ' camp ' in the ordnance map), where there is a small square
enclosure, and near it a mound in a circular or oval ditch about 14 yards
in diameter ; and at Denton Hall. Here the base-court is 85 yards
long, with a ditch about 8| yards broad, and a rampart partly round
it, extending to two sides, beyond which is a smaller ditch ; adjoining
the west side is a smaller enclosure in which is a mound ; later on a
292
REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD
pele tower was built on the mound, replacing the wooden house, and
now there are farm-buildings in which the stump of the pele serves
as a dairy. The so-called 'Saxon village' at High Mains, west of Over
Denton church, is probably such another place (Chancellor Ferguson,
Trans. Cumb. and West. Ant. and Archeeol. Soc. vi. 194). At Headswood,
near Newtown of Irthington, Maclauchlan noted indistinct remains of
another such site {Memoir, p. 70).
One of these, we have seen, was not conical but oblong ; and there
are a few sites which seem to carry out this type, becoming the simple
' moated grange.' The high mound in later times became unnecessary,
and more room was wanted perhaps for the building. To get an
elevated and dry site the earth from the ditch was thrown up into the
central area, but the old apparatus of defence was abandoned. Such
probably was the origin of a place which has puzzled antiquaries at
Snittlegarth, formerly called a Roman camp. It is an oblong platform,
83 by 31 feet wide, with a ditch 5 feet deep, and 12 feet broad at the
bottom, 23 feet broad at the top ; there are traces of earthworks out-
side. This is not the only example of the kind. At Peel at the foot of
Crummock Water is a ditch surrounding a little hill, possibly the site of
the manor-house of the Lindsays before Richard I. Near Weary Hall,
not far from Whitehall Mote, is a space of about i| acre, surrounded
by a ditch and raised above the neighbouring level. Two similar earth-
works used to exist at Castle Carrock ; one was about 40 yards west
of the church, measuring 1 00 by 40 yards and formerly moated round ;
the other at Hallsteads, described as about three times as large, and
rising 7 or 8 yards above the surrounding meadow. At one of these
sites a stake, fired at the end, was found, probably the remains of a
stockade.
The enormous earthworks of Scaleby Castle — two circular moats,
the outer about a mile in circumference, from which the earth has
been heaped into the centre for the castle hill — are a larger and probably
later application of the same method.
Plotting these earthworks on the map, it will be observed that the
duns and caers group themselves on or near the high fells, while the
tiins dot Inglewood, ' the wood of the English,' and the open country to
east and west of it ; the motes lying thick in the Irthing valley, and
more sparsely along the Eden, Wampool, Ellen and Ehen, clinging
rather to the rivers than the Roman roads. No conclusions however
can be drawn from such a map without the addition of ancient place-
names, which are a class of ' remains ' by themselves, though not included
in the scope of this chapter.
293
DOMESDAY BOOK, PIPE
ROLLS, AND TESTA
DE NEVILL
THERE are few counties in England which hold so unique a
position in the general history of the country as Cumberland ;
and there is no county which will necessitate more exceptional
treatment, both in its external relations and internal development.
Far away from the great centres of national life, situated on the frontier
of a hostile kingdom, inaccessible except by precarious roads over moun-
tain passes, the territorial area now known as the county of that name
had remained for centuries more of a Crown colony than a settled division
of the commonwealth. Its inclusion in the old kingdom of Cumbria
separated it in a large measure from the general polity of English and
Scottish history, and gave it a defined isolation which made itself felt in
the settlement of the district after the final overthrow of that kingdom.
Owning no allegiance to its powerful neighbours, it was successively
ravaged by Picts and Scots, Angles and Danes. Later it was claimed by
England and Scotland alike, till it was finally ceded to the king of Scot-
land as afief of the English Crown. Its southern boundary receded from
Morecambe Sands ^ to the Duddon, from the Duddon to the Esk, and
from the Esk to the Derwent, as if England was slowly pushing her way
northward, with the view of completing her frontier from the Solway to
the mouth of the Tweed. When the time arrived for its final severance
from ancient Cumbria and its absorption into fhe English kingdom, it
will not be considered strange that its peculiar position warranted ex-
ceptional administration from the statesmen among its Norman and
Angevin rulers. These exceptional features present themselves at almost
every turn. The early Scotic origins of the district, its late formation as
1 Ecgfrid king of Northumbria gave the land called Cartmell and the Britons in it to St. Cuthbert
{Symeon of Durham, p. 141, Surtees Society). The kingdom of Northumbria stretched from the Humber
to the Scottish sea, including the peninsula now known as Lancashire north of the Sands (Twysden,
Bromton, 801). The region of Ulverston was surveyed in Domesday Book with part of Cumberland as
having been held by Tosti earl of Northumberland {Domesday, i. 301*). Cartmell was reckoned among
the marches {marcimes) of Scotland as late as 1258 {Chse Rolls, 22 Hen. III. m. izd). Skene does not
admit Scottish territory at any time south of the Derwent {fleltic Scotland, i. 228, 340, 396, Maps).
295
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
an English county, its peculiar land tenures, its division into wards, the
ubiquity of its military defences, the motes and mounds, the earthen
dykes and deep ditches, the peel towers and castellated churches, the
complexity of its ethnology, the philological confusion of its folk-speech,
and the sturdy self-reliance of its inhabitants, differentiate the county
from the rest of England, and compel us to look at the evidences upon
which its history is based, without reference to the forces which were
working out the destiny of the nation of which it formed a part.
The early history of the county presents innumerable difficulties
owing to the dearth of documentary materials. The northern chroniclers
have little of value to relate, A mantle of silence, like the veil of Isis,
hangs over it till the close of the eleventh century. Domesday Book has
nothing to tell us of the holders of land in the time of Edward the
Confessor, or of the settlement after the Norman Conquest. The religious
houses were founded too late to throw any light upon the dark period.
In fact we have no authentic history worthy of the name till Henry I.
took in hand the district which his brother had added to his kingdom.
In the following century a new era opened with the series of the Pipe
Rolls. In order to elucidate the history of the twelfth century, as far as
it can be done with the materials at our disposal, and to compensate in
some measure for the absence of the Domesday Survey, it has been
determined to print in full all the documentary evidences which touch
on the feudal institutions of the district and their establishment under
English rule.
The omission of the northern counties from Domesday can scarcely
be explained by the reasons which seem to have satisfied the first editors
of the great national record. Kelham thought it probable that the king's
commissioners had found it impossible to make an exact survey of
Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland, as the whole of the
northern district had been laid waste by the Conqueror ; and Sir Henry
Ellis supported this view by quotations from the chronicles to show the
completeness of the devastation.^ In that case our north-western county
was not included in its entirety in the Survey, either because it was of
no value in the eyes of the commissioners, or because the inhabitants
were so exasperated by the Conqueror's vengeance that no juries could
be found to make the requisite returns. Alongside of this view we must
place a tradition common to the religious houses in Cumberland, that it
was William the Conqueror, and not his son Rufus, who first subdued
the district, and made it definitively a portion of his newly-acquired
dominions. There is in the Register of the Priory of Wetheral a frag-
mentary document called the ' Distributio Cumbirlandise ad Conquestum
Anglic,' ^ which Dugdale ^ printed with the title of the ' Chronicon
Cumbrie,' to which the early local historians had access and upon which
they relied for much of their information on the Norman settlement of
^ Introduction to Domesday Book, i. 38, 39.
* The Register of the Priory ofWetherhal, p. 384, ed. J. E. Prescott.
^ Monasticon, iii. 584, new edition.
296
THE DOMESDAY BOOK
the county. This compilation opens with the statement that king
William duke of Normandy, the conqueror of England, gave all the
land of the county of Cumbria to Ranulf Meschin ; and all the county
of Chester to Geoffrey his brother ; and all the land of Coupland, be-
tween the Duddon and Derwent, to William, another brother. As the
authority of this manuscript has been accepted and repeated, not only
colouring the statements of Kelham and Ellis, but troubling the whole
stream of Cumbrian history, an inquiry into its origin may be desirable.
It has been generally considered in recent years that we have in this
document a monkish legend, of little or no authority, composed by the
monks of the priory in whose register Dugdale found it. We cannot
accept that view of its origin. No reason has been given to show its con-
nection with Wetheral, and the historic statements in the body of the
document have not even an indirect reference to the lands and endow-
ments of that religious house. The bulk of the manuscript is concerned
with the territorial succession of the lords of AUerdale and Coupland,
those two great baronies which embraced nearly the whole of the sea-
board on the western coast. The ' Chronicon Cumbrie ' is but a maimed
version of a similar document in the Register of the Priory of St. Bees.^
The statements of both manuscripts, with some textual differences, agree
as far as they go ; but in the later descents of the baronies, the St. Bees
copy is much fuller in genealogical detail. Another manuscript of similar
purport, which is just as explicit on William the Conqueror's connection
with Cumberland, has been preserved among the Miscellaneous Rolls
of the Tower.^ It states that Ranulf Meschin came to England with
William the Bastard, who created him earl of Karliol and gave him all
the land from Rerecrosse on Staynmore as far as the river towards
Scotland called Sulewaht, that is, the Solway, the true marches between
England and Scotland. With this preface, the writer at once pro-
ceeds to trace the history of the baronies in question, and confines
his attention exclusively to their ownership, in which performance he
does not display a wide divergence from the style and scope of the
Wetheral and St. Bees compilations. On comparison of the three
documents there cannot be two opinions, having regard to the internal
evidence, that they had a common origin. If we turn to a great lawsuit ^
1 Harkian MS. 434, ff. 73-6.
* Touier Miscellaneous Rolls, No. Ais. ; Bain, Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, ii. 64.
* This suit furnishes a very interesting series of pleas. On the death of Aveline de Fortibus, widow
of Edmund earl of Lancaster, the king's brother, without heirs, which took place before 1275 {Calen-
darium Genealoffcum, i. 224), the Honor of Cockermouth was seized by the Crown, to the exclusion of
the Lucy and Multon families. In 4 Edward L, John de Eston claimed the manors, but his title was
waived in consideration of the gift of a ' hundred pound land.' The date of the document in the
Tower Rolls, which carries the genealogy to the death of Aveline, synchronises with this royal bargain.
The suit was revived in 1 306 at the instance of Thomas de Multon and Thomas de Lucy as Aveline's
heirs, when the king pleaded the former settlement with Eston {Abbrev. Placit. p. iSia). With these
claimants the * Chronicon Cumbrie ' brings the baronial descent to a close. The St. Bees document
carries the pedigree one generation further to the persons of Thomas de Multon of Egremont and
Anthony de Lucy, as the representatives of William Fitz Duncan and Alice his wife, adding signifi-
cantly qui nunc petit after each name. With this story the pedegradus entered on the rolls of the Court
in 1 3 16 agrees, the pedigree in each case ending with qui nunc petit as in the St. Bees document
(Abbrev. Placit. p. 323 : Rotuli Parliament, i. 347-9)- The legal origin of this bundle of disturbing
297
A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND
which occupied the attention of the king's Court at intervals from 1275
to 1316, in a historic dispute over the possession of the Honor of
Cockermouth, the clue to the origin of these documents will be found.
They are nothing more than memoranda prepared by the claimants for
the guidance of the lawyers, and, perhaps, put together with the assist-
ance of the monks of St. Bees and Holmcultram. As historical docu-
ments they are of slender value when standing alone, but for our present
purpose they are useful in showing that the tradition of the district at
the close of the thirteenth century was universal that William the Con-
queror was the instrument in making the Solway the north-western
frontier of the English kingdom.
Before we place any reliance upon this early tradition, or accept the
plea of devastation as a sufficient reason for the omission of nearly the
whole of the modern county from Domesday, it would be well to inquire
briefly into the circumstances of the district, as far as we know them,
about the time of the Norman Conquest. Some points come out clearly
on the highest authority. In 945, so witness the chronicles,^ Eadmund
king of the West Saxons wasted all ' Cumbraland,' and gave it to Malcolm
king of Scots on the condition that he should be his ally by sea and land.
This uncertain vassalage continued with more or less interruption for
over a century, the Scottish princes doing homage for that portion of
ancient Cumbria which now embraces the English county, though at
that time it was no part of England. In 1070 troubles lay thick on
the Border provinces.^ King Malcolm and Gospatric earl of Northum-
berland were at enmity, and wasted each other's territories ' with atrocious
depopulation.' From a statement of Symeon of Durham, it would
appear that the Scottish king's title to Cumberland was not considered at
this time above suspicion. When the chronicler says that the princip